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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:40 am 
 

Harnbarg Metalfest, June 22nd, Gebouw de Hoogenweg, Hardenberg

Even after 41 years of (live) metal I can still come across somewhat of a new concept. This festival was a newie to me, both in approach as in location. OK, I’ve been to Hardenberg for Venom (2000), Iced Earth (2001) and Harvest Metalfest (2005, Unleashed, Behemoth, Pungent Stench), but that was in the venue called Podium Hardenberg. That venue has been out of the gig lists for at least ten years. Bankrupt. The approach was new in a sense that there was no pre-sale, but only tickets at the door or reservation via FB’s Messenger. Uhm, if Graceless plays, I gladly bring in Wanda’s FB account to get there ;) FB later also mentioned a surprise act. A B&B was easily found, as I clearly remember driving home after 2,5 hours of Iced Earth (…) with a drunken Sjors in the passenger seat. I texted Andrée and Käthe, as I know they’re fond of Supreme Carnage and I was the reason they couldn’t see them in Rheine :o Up to driving east, I have no idea about the surprise act nor if Andrée would make it there. Turns out Andrée and Käthe had their weekend off, at the North Sea coast. Pleasant weekend from us to you ;)

Driving in blazing sun can be a hazard, but with about 20 bottles of 500 ml water we succeed. But the county Hardenberg has its own surprise: there are no less than five (!) streets named Parallelweg or Parallelstraat! >< So, after an unvoluntarily detour near Dronten (really weird setting of parallel roads towards different directions (…) ) we end up in the wrong Parallelweg. Typing this I must say we’ve seen four of the five Parallelwegs ;) all weekend. The B&B De Vlinder is an excellent, rustique place between a rail station and an industrial area, never bothered by any train at all apart from the names they’re given (Hulzesukkel >< ). We got the lady of the B&B to call a taxi, but the Hardenberg Taxi Co. did not work in weekends and the Ommen one didn’t know the Hoogenweg street AND building. Huh? Fine, the lovely lady said, I bring you there and make sure you’ll get picked up at midnight. Coming to the venue we were instantly hailed by Marcel VII and Masha, lukewarm beer left over from Pitfest :) , Lemmy on can, Fleshcrawl on mini-Marshall and Leon! Gerard marched in by tractor \m/ No need to spill beer from a recent festival hahaha so the start was great. Wanda paid the tickets and we got Mass Decline. Uhm, decline from death to deathcore and back to death metal? Outside it was cozier, so to speak. The organization had announced a surprise act, but as we’d seen people in Procreation shirts unload we had a hint who’d play… yeah it was Procreation. The death metal these guys played didn’t leave so much impression as two weeks ago on Pitfest… The first band that did leave an impression was Bloodmoon, as the witty intros and descriptions filled the audience with gore, serial murder and disease… the drummer hit so hard he lost the tip of his stick and shoved it under Wanda’s nose ;) and I got the normal set list and Wanda the ‘description’ list:
- Bloodmoon
- 8 Methods to Prevent Being Buried Alive
- Killer Clown
- The Draugr
- Living Incarnation of all Evil
- Death by Diarrhea
- Black Putrefaction
- Religion is War
- Waterboarding
- Shrunken Head
- Bathory Countess of Blood
- Letting the Blood
- La Sayona (why was I thinking ‘My Corona’? They friggin’have HJ on tap! :o )
- Ritual Cannibalism (with Vieze Pim and another attention whore invited on stage)

This was fun. The band has wit and a strong affection to anything regarding old school death metal, be it Swedish or Floridan no one needs to describe from where came what :) It sure as hell helps they have a frontman like Marcel, he’s nut about his own band :) and the sound is great. Had Mass Decline a decrepit sound, Bloodmoon’s was as it should be. We thanked the band, begging for patches to be made (‘soon’, Marcel only said ;) ) and handing them beers as thank you. We got ourselves some festival food (fricandel, meat ball :) with way too much sauce ;) ) and got out for some refreshment. That we missed Dead End in their alternative band setting (singer just said ‘I won’t sing this weekend, figure it out yourselves’ (?!) and with a different guitarist, so be it for once. We needed some ‘us-time’ and got mown hay, cows in the distance, corn and oat rising, great sunset and we have peace. We got back in for Supreme Carnage, but weren’t really positive anymore… we had discussed our pasts and the technical death metal the Germans play was a case of ‘wrong band on bad timing’ and let them be. It did get a little more crowded, but seeing the total amount of visitors so far, I think these organizers will have a hard task making ends meet… Later, at a delicious breakfast, I told Wanda and the B&B lady my worries, with only FB as medium to communicate and the overall distance to other cities this festival, nice as it is, won’t easily return. Never mind Graspop, I later thought… on the other hand, Graspop hardly has death metal anymore, or only the biggest bands (Cannibal Amarth, Behemoth, Hypocrisy maybe, Aborted and so on; haven’t we seen those… seventeen times… also in Dessel…) this is a nice option for us. We don’t need +100k visitors, abysmal food for too high prices, lukewarm beer [no offense, Marcel VII hihi] wait in line for every friggin’part of the day/week/… uhm, better get Graceless!!! The band announced they are working on new material and seeing the set list, they played three new songs! Killer tracks, as was Shadowlands… the sound is superb, the band clearly enjoys playing for old school deathheads like us and give 150 per cent, every tune, every riff, every solo, every grunt. As far as we’re concerned, the new material can’t be released soon enough! Remco and Jasper clearly blushing when they saw Wanda’s Dutch Denim (enormous Graceless- above a huge Thanatos- and a big Hail of Bulletspatch :cool: . Gorefest and Mutator as brothers united :) on the front). Wanda got Marc’s set list and I got Remco’s guitar pick (THANNKKKKK YOUOUOUOU!!!) :
- We Will Be Gods
- Legions of the Fallen
- Slashed and Seeeeeeeeeeeerveeeed \m/
- Vultures
- Lock Stock
- Shadowlands
- Here Be Dragons
- Die on Demand
- Sumerian Flames
- Iron Tears
- Warpath

There’s a nice pit behind us, but we can’t linger too long… the taxi would be there at midnight and we’re positively NOT going to walk haha. Thanks to the bands, band members, crew and volunteers, this was a cool festival, but hopefully I’m wrong about the festival’s future… Like said, we had a great breakfast (local bread, home made jam and eggs from the garden itself, blooming Passiflora and that rest… awesome!) and thanked Henja and Ben for the umpteenth time… cool metal weekend.

My own addition to the review (sign in as guest or become member at http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... enweg-june ) is: 'Newsflash: Dead End split up after this gig...'

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 3:18 pm 
 

Dynamo Metalfest 2019, IJssportcentrum Eindhoven, July 19th - 20th. Headliners Arch Enemy, Airbourne

This fourth edition of Dynamo Metalfest wasn’t a question of ‘go or not?’ but simply of ‘when and who?’; date, bands, company. Posters of DMF2019 were present on DMF2018 but as there wasn’t as much as a teaser (in the previous years the teasers were Sacred Reich, Testament, Annihilator) I kept them hanging. Hotel was arranged when my DMF2018 laundry hung to dry, as they called me to say they’d found a phone… is it a Nokia 6310i in band aids? Yeah, that’s mine, by any chance is it possible to book a year beforehand? No, sir, sorry, try booking.com for that. OK, done, phone being sent in two days. Me happy. But when the actual bands were announced, it was quite a swallow.. only Carcass and Airbourne as interesting/cool/OK whatever? Uhm, loads of moments to eat, as the festival was expanded to two days feat. (don’t startle :o ) Arch Enemy, Soulfly, Avatar and fffffg Steel Dildos… kut. Och, we go anyway, meet friends and get overtly drunk. Fine. Belinda had a camping ticket, we go by train, back to Sandton once more. It had been turned to a two-day-fest as well! For the same price as the one-day-ticket.

The trip to Eindhoven began with a near harmful accident… an ancient man in a way too new car nearly cut off Wanda’s arm trying to pass, clearly it wasn’t his own set of glasses on his humongus big nose >< Coming to Toon’s house he brought disinfectant and a band aid and we could travel on. The welcome in both hotel as IJssportcentrum was most welcome, but the previous offer to be able to use last year’s coins wasn’t… add a faulty bank card to that (huh? Hasn’t the boss paid yet? ><) and off to one of the abundant bars serving coffee and, later, Kornuit. Not the best beer but at least it isn’t Bav or Dom haha. The waiting line outside was shorter than the ones for the ticket scan, the line for coins and so on… would they never learn? Get the friggin’office open some earlier, dudes! Happily a band was there to comfort us, but as Baest has some problems identifying themselves, it wasn’t really warming to the senses. Do they play death, black, thrash or what? The leaflet said ‘death’ and at the end of the set I thought I recognized at least some HM 2 Boss-sounds present and the overall feel got better. We were here for more Swedish sounding metal anyway, as Jungle Rot was ready to fill the trenches with the deliciously dirty death metal Stockholm style they play. The first circle pit of the weekend was seen too, and with some 35 minutes the first besweated heads were seen :lol: Really cool band! Wanda got us some patches and went looking for some CDs, but she found REVENANT!!! Holy kut, that’s so long ago I have seen that particular leaflet, I could hardly wait to spin this underrated icon of death metal for myself! Split the tape, here the original press Prophecies of a Dying World GODDOMMEGAAFFF!

In the meantime Grand Magus was setting stage and different than I expected, they hardly play stoner anymore, but seem to have become Iron Maiden adepts or something (?) Uhm, OK, head back to the bar then. We found Darius and his most lovely gf Jenny, finally some phone numbers resent haha. That Eluveitie tried hardest to blow any eardrum to pieces was of another planet, I’ve never heard them so loud before. That the mix wasn’t really top we noticed during Grand Magus too, but with 9 on a stage you need a good sound engineer and not one only trying to please the singer! >< Inis Mona was the only song I recognized, but á la, I confess, I haven’t played anything else but Slania and Spirit and even that was years ago. Time to eat, as Avatar was ready to bore us to the circus… what a bunch of bad-Rammstein-addicts (music wise) but their show will never reach the level of, say, King Diamond. Uhggg. Easily forgettable, I’d say. What I had not expected either, was that Airbourne would do a forgettable show… the headliner of today had a sloppy sound (mostly drums, NO guitar and hardly any vocals) and the fire that could be present was a mere match stick in the rain… Fun was, that every band so far had a band back drop, Airbourne had Marshalls, Marshall, a small gap for the drum kit and Marshalls, Marshalls. That hardly half of them were wired, I don’t care, the sight was cool but the needed decibels stayed way, way beyond expectations… We chose to head for a taxi after only three songs, Too Much Too Young Too Fast sounded like played from under a cheese bowl… the taxi was smooth and not too expensive, kip in a steaming hot hotel room and shower in the morning.

We ate in HEMA as usual, head for Effenaar for the shuttle bus. In the bus it was already cozy, but the line in front of IJssportcentrum was even longer! Why? Why not open up early, there were over 500 people waiting! In blazing heat! No water present, only a couple of smarter guys with beers haha. The band that opened today, was New Zealand ‘thrash’ metal quintet Alien Weaponry. Uhm, OK if you sing in your home language/dialect, but at least try to play metal instead of copying Pearl Jam riffs and Bush-vocal lines… not a single hint of a fast riff, let alone a dirty one. Are we getting old or are their fans younger every year? We found Jane and Alex Mutator and had a great couple of beers together watching Tribulation. At least they play heavy, dirty music, deathlike doom or whatnot, it was more metal than AW ever could dream of. I was looking more forward to Armored Saint’s 30 year Dynamo Anniversary, as John Bush happily announced ‘who was there those thirty years ago?’ I had to jump to show my finger haha but he got the point. There were LOADS of people with any Dynamo (the club, the Open Airs, Outdoor or Metalfest) anniversary present. Heh heh it had been 10 years since that great day in the city center with Asphyx, Mucky Pup and Municipal Waste :cool: \m/ [see http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... ipal-waste for guest login or members] My first Dynamo Open Air was that 1989 one too… I think they played a special Dynamo set too:
- Raising Fear
- Can U Deliver
- Creepy Feelings
- Last Train Home
- Underdogs
- Seducer
- Reign of Fire
- Win Hands Down
- Nervous Man
- March of the Saint
- Mad House

The band is in excellent shape and John’s vocals are powerful as ever. Alex had heard he’d been a bit shy on the beginning of the tour but now he’s interacting, he’s jumping, hands high, party on dudes! Really a great gig! Kudos to the organizers for making this happen!! That those organizers can’t hit with every bands clearly shows when Phil Anselmo & The Illegals befoul the stage… half the set was filled with sloppy Pantera crap songs and as if he’s ever listened to Beëlzebub he knows the Gates of Heaven open up on him the moment Walk trembles from the speakers… a huge monsoon takes place, emptying the field in seconds, filling the merch stands instantly, the bars get overcrowded and only the die hards stay near a clearly not sober Anselmo. Really, what a fucked up show this is. I know quite some Pantera fans, but it seemed they were not present today. We get to the Belgian food truck for some nice patattekes and who show up: HeeJo, Dennis and Nini! Jo proud of her new Dokk’Em Open Air shirt, Nini in Jo’s denim and Dennis’ smile wide as a whale. ‘Greetings to Noobs’, he said when my fries were emptied hihi.

Wanda’s anticipation grew, as she has a Metal Church patch on her ‘red denim’ but never heard the band play. I look at the stage, see Mike Howe act like a doof and think the worst is yet to come… a hollow sound, two unknown songs before I have to dig deep to commemorate Start the Flameless Fire, Watch the Children Bore Themselves to Death and Beyond the Boring! Oh Fuck Off Howe as you show you really DON’T want to sing these songs! We looked at each other, Jane, Darius, Alex, Jenny, Wanda and me, just agreeing Wanda will take the patch OFF her denim!! Soulfly had a way better sound, but I’m easily bored with the pots and pans again, have nothing with the way Max shows his spirituality these days and don’t like the audience shouting for Sep songs. Apart from the Return to Roots I don’t think Cavalera will do much Sep anymore, anyhow. I am clearly waiting for Carcass to begin, try if Wanda knows any of the songs they play: we hear an intro, Surgical Steel, Buried Dreams, but as even Exhume to Consume doesn’t ring her bell I see she’s getting tired. I wanted to hear Incarnated Solvent Abuse, got that but during Unfit for Human Consumption we are at the lockers already. Turn key number 1347 (…), pick up another hand full of patches and CDs and head out. Of yesterday’s cab driver we heard we’d best head out to the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swim Stadium or nearby hospital to try to call a taxi. We’d both left our handy’s at home but no need to worry: there’s the same man as yesterday! Guaranteed big tip hahaha. We decided to grab one final bite, I showed Wanda The Jack and one Chouffe later we return to the sauna err hotel room. Pillow, gone, water, smell, shower, Sub, train, bike.

Next year Dynamo Metalfest will be held July 17th and 18th and hold… Sepultura. See if they make it an anniversary (they played DOA 1990 ;) ) Earlybird sale started July 21st, already sold out. Tickets some € 60. We think about it.

Thinking back I hesitate if this was all worth it. Yes, according to my notifications regarding Baest, Jungle Rot, Armored Saint and Carcass, but we missed the two biggest names, had loads of sound shit and bad bands not willing to play correctly. But the friends made it worth enough for me. Funny to see how many agreed with me on Fucker Anselmo and Dildo Pants. We don’t need a too hot chick in blue hairs that can hardly articulate. We need metal and got Rotten Armor with a Beast Corpse in it. Metal.

View if there's a guest or member that reacted on http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... urne-enemy

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:02 am 
 

Stonehenge 2019, July 27th: Memoriam, I Am Morbid, Abbath. Festival terrain near train station, Steenwijk, NL

The fun of this festival started at the first day after the 2018 edition: a spot on picture of me, Wanda and Belinda as first picture of Ronald van de Baan’s entire photo book :lol: No need to tell we were delighted the early birds were on sale July 29th 2018 haha. And in the pocket of course ;) Big plus: it’s the 25th edition, party time! First batch: Aborted, Inhume, Soulburn, Cirith Gorgor, Rotten Sound and Birdflesh. I got Alex a birthday ticket, Tom one, Thirza of course; Peter would get his own, along with Alex Zwaert we’d be in Blitterswijk B&B again. ShreddedEd asked me on Thursday if he could stay in Blitterswijk also, so that brought 12 of us. Alex brought me some stress (should I say ‘as often’? Or is that too personal? ;) ) by asking me the night before if I had the tickets, somewhere? Uhgg, I could have known better, to keep the tickets to myself, but I didn’t. Before Peter picked me up I’d been e-mailing Alex once more… Mirjam had coffee and Toon wouldn’t join us, even though we’d offered him the free spare ticket… oh yeah it was some guy out of Enkhuizen that would join us beforehand ;) After having seen at least two bands I got out to try to get rid of the spare but in the end I just gave it to a friendly, lovely lady camping outside. It was her choice to pay me or not, I couldn’t care less. We saw The Heritance only from a distance but I guess I didn’t miss much. We were greeted with whale smiles by Käthe, Sylvia and Belinda hihi. Wanda wanted to surprise Belinda with an Ultra Violence patch, but I missed if they’d brought them. The band was well worth the early trip to Steenwijk, played tight but without vocals? Or, at least the background vocals were well heard, but the center microphone was totally dead. Pity, I like their vocals a lot. It took three men to start the first circle pit of the day but I destroyed it :) Ah, have a nice hamburger to keep standing up ;)

What didn’t destroy was Vendetta FM. The Spanish band calls themselves Vendetta Fucking Metal but you have to be fucking mental to listen to this metalcorecrap. Highly forgettable. Better turn our heads towards the other stage, as Jungle Rot is setting up gear. The band bash in like a piranha on bloody limbs and the audience becomes a bloody mess haha. The sound is amazing, the volume great and the pit merciless! I saw Tom bouncing on his ankles, he could hardly stand still ;) Time to relax would be scarce after this moment, as the following bands nearly all seemed worth it… Prostitute Disfigurement made me somersault back to the other stage, even Alex found it time to eat… I had never seen Taipan nor Cirith Gorgor before, but I didn’t even write anything; I got to be on front row for Soulburn. The band, welcomed by Earik of The Lucifer Principle and approved by Bob Bachgus ;) had a clear and heavy sound, loud as possible and with vigor. It was still pretty early, but I dragged Maarten to the front row and we loved it to bits! Here’s Remco’s set list (THANK YOU!!)
- Crypts of the Black
- Absinthesis
- Claws of Tribulation
- Abyssica
- As Cold Heavens Slain
- Outtro Al Bowlly + Eden’s Last sigh.
Again, I had to hurry to the other stage, as Inhume was ready to tear the audience limb from limb. The band had only 25 minutes, but used them well! Fast, murderous, violent, resulting in a great pit and thus a bleeding elbow is present now… Kill or be killed, so it seemed. I got Loek’s set list (THANK YOU!!) :
- Inescapable Destiny
- Blood Orgy
- Cadaverous Abortion
- Dead Man Walking (uhm, we missed Dead Man’s Walk this morning, but spotted Nathat nonetheless)
- Prelude to Human Confinement
- Bier break! Hihi, that wasn’t only for the band :lol:
- Hate/Kill
- Pandemic
- Squirming Parasites
- Missing Link
- Tumourhead
- Bier break2
- Wretched Worm
- Airplane Crash
- Grind Culture
- Tiamat

I bought a copy of Bob’s new project Infidel Reich and asked him how it would sound... he smiled and said ‘think Carnivore, more in lyrics than in music’ Uhm, should I worry or be in for a joke? We’ll see, at least his signature in on the album; I can always put it on eBay *evil grin* Talking to Bob we got to see Birdflesh once more, funny as fkcu hahaha. Don’t take the music too serious, is their adagio. Meanwhile, the news spread Memoriam wasn’t able to get to Steenwijk in time, because of ‘traffic problems’; they were replaced by Graceless. Of Graceless we haven’t seen zilch, as Wanda went from bad to worse: severe case of dehydration/heat stroke!! We ended up in the ambulance and after being assured there wasn’t much to be done (but rest) we got into a taxi and left for the B&B. That we missed reunion shows of Nembrionic and Altar, pfff gosh, isn’t the health of the one you love a little bit more important?? I texted everybody that was still in the old Nokia and got her to bed. I slept for about two hours before the rest of our group got back. We drank about a crate of HJ more before hitting the (excellent) sack for good. No need for Olve Elkemo, Dave Vincent or Edwin Kelder...

Breakfast was, as always, plenty, good, delicious and enough. Again, I wasn’t allowed to pay for the B&B but made sure everybody did get accounted for. Tom had business in Brabant and left with his roaring cool Manta Berlinetta 1979, Alex got Thirza to the train and we drove about 20 minutes after Ronald, Jeffrey and ShreddedEd left… only to get behind them near the bridge over Ketelmeer. It was good that Peter turned the car and left over the side lane, as we later found out the bridge had been in turmoil for over two hours! Traffic problems for Memoriam? Uhm, no, for us hahaha. We thought Ronald wouldn’t dare to do the same, but we turned to the same snackbar for icecream, water and some refreshment hihihi. Next year’s Stonehenge is already known: July 26th, feat. Malevolent Creation (!), Gutalax and Severe Torture! Add a tenth Stonehenge to my line, we gladly return to Blitterswijk AND Steenwijk of course!! Metal!!

Not much replys (member or guest login) via http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... d-memoriam

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 7:28 am 
 

Coven – The Magickal Chaos Tour 2019, Willemeen Arnhem, July 31st. Support act Demon Head (DK)

I’d hardly thought I’d go to a band/performer solely on the basis of my first time seeing AND no music of my own to represent. Coven, with the occult and mystical Jinx Dawson as main figure, was the exception to a really silly rule of mine. Last year the Coven gig in Amstelveen was such a blast I’d love to see more of the band/ritual. Wanda agreed blackheartedly. I was surprised there would be a one-off Dutch gig for a band I think has brought a lot of theatrics and atmosphere to the entire music business. I for one think King Diamond has taken certain elements of the show, maybe even Alice Cooper peeked at the altar once, call Watain of Batushka for recognition… The tickets were only € 16! What? Such a small venue and only that tiny fee? OK, we go. Go to work by car, pick Wanda up, work at home the following day. Extremely doable.

But the concert started weirdly. Wanda's been experiencing so much trouble after the heat stroke from last weekend, we thought we had to cancel our Coven ceremony. She simply didn't have any energy left. Gladly, she ate well after the respitory test at the doctor's the day before, I still had my hopes up that she could pop into the train. I had all necessary stuff in my car (denim, camera, tickets, ear plugs, clean shirt, water) and a reserved parking spot at the office was no problem. If it didn't work, heck, we've seen Jinx... :( Turned out Wanda was surprised I’d taken the tickets to the office and she wrecked her conscious to get there, she turned up at Amstel an hour early! Now we suddenly have all the time to get there, park, eat, whatever. We even got ourselves an Arnhem fridge magnet and a cutting board. Of all kitchen equipment HA HA HA. Not wanting awkward questions I ditched those in the car. We ate at Zappa’s but no music was present. Gluten free, yeah, but it took about half an hour extra to cook it fresh! Add a few 0,0 Radler beers, fine.

Coming to Willemeen made my day even more. Both bands, minus Jinx, were outside eating, smoking, babbling and whatnot and soon we were shouted at from a passing car… hey there’s (the good) Kimberly, isn’t Jordy there too? Yes, they’d bought tickets the day before, but they could sell them because Jordy’s friend Klaas had put them on the guest list. Why? Klaas is highly befriended with guitarist Chris of Coven, they met at Roadburn 2017 and stayed in touch. Chris knows Jordy is a technician so he asked Klaas if he’d had a soldering iron to fix the smoke machine. And by Woden and Donar combined, did the smoke machine work or not? During the support act Demon Head the big hall of Willemeen was totally covered in fog. The Danish doom/hard rock band showed a cross between Pentagram (Liebling lookalike), Focus (key board doodle), Zep (song structures) and The Doors (vocal lines). It is very energetic band but it’s JUST a hint too loud to experience all the subtleties (double lead, double rhythm). The breaks and outbursts are SUPER HEAVY. We liked it a lot, Wanda even stayed on front row the entire show, but after a few songs the likeness to Jim Morrison was getting too obvious for me. I did get Wanda a patch, as it holds some occult pictogram of the sorts. They played on Coven’s drum kit so there wasn’t much time to cool down afterwards.

The coffin was brought into the venue by Willemeen volunteers, but the stage volunteer nearly tipped it over. Fatass!! Dumb chick! Gladly, Jinx has the wit to overcome that! In Coven Jinx Dawson is surrounded by youngsters nowadays. Had the recording of the first album people of her age, the previous tour some guys in their forties to play, now she had dudes of 25 to 30 in her band and they are up to it! The ritual begins with said coffin, enchanting melodies and fog, fog, fog. After Black Sabbath and a few other songs Jinx asked ‘welcome to this chaotic Summer, you’d had quite a Summer already, do you want us to cool down or to get it HOTTT?’ Hot is what we want! Wicked Witch of Rose Hall was thrilling, simmering in heat and atmosphere, Wicked Woman even more! Jinx also has a funny way of introducing the band ‘Chris the technical mastermind, the bass player was picked up from a cemetary’ hihihi before For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was played. The trance goes deeper and deeper, gets more meaningful along the way and visually it’s great. Jinx is still quite a fit, loads of mystical hand movements, a voice that has power and feel and apparently she’s still in a great shape… for a 69 year old >< The music is so loud I get difficulty to keep standing up, but we won’t budge until Blood in the Snow is played. Again, and as expected, no encore but none needed too. We greeted Jordy, Kim and Klaas and head out, only to find both bands, minus Jinx, outside smoking, drinking and generally having a good time. Even though I thought Willemeen was way too small for such a gig, it fit the concert like a bejeweled glove (Jinx has some rows of zirconium and diamonds up her sleeves). Let me moan about the volume, I was the one that kept standing front row, right?

I was so happy Wanda had the energy to come up to Amstel/Arnhem I nearly forgot I’d worked from early this day. I was so tired I had difficulty driving straight, but my beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel, apple juice and coffee got us home. And the feeling we’d seen another special show. Surprised the venue wasn’t sold out, but the ones present were made special by Jinx herself. Occult! Witchery! Death! Metal!

find reactions of members or guest (login) via http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... -tour-2019

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Aug 17, 2019 3:30 pm 
 

Alcatraz Metal Hard Rock and Metal festival 2019, feat. Saxon, Rose Tattoo, Sodom

This review is for Thomas Wouters, my friend and guitarist/singer of Bodyfarm, who died the day we drove off to Gent. Offline and ignorant, but with a Bodyfarm shirt I drove. Not knowing I’d hear the terrible news until Rose Tattoo got to stage (with plenty of deceased band members to commemorate) I started this in Gent:

In a weekend with 6 or 7 metalfestivals planned you can’t do ‘m all unless you have patience. Since 2011 the second weekend of August had held me on Bloodstock (2011), on Brutal Assault (2012, 2014), on PartySan (2013, 2015, 2018) and Into the Grave (2016, 2017) and I know there are more. One in Portugal, Sweden Something Metal and Alcatraz; albeit the least heavy/underground of the lot, we’d go once. Wanda also would love to return to PartySan, but be patient as you’ve never been into Belgium before ;) The first bands announced were Saxon (later mentioned: special Castles and Eagles set), Rose Tattoo and DEMOLITION HAMMER!! Hypocrisy and Sodom made me book tickets. Sit at the laptop to organize a holiday of two weeks, another novity for Wanda, we combined Gent, Ieper (World War I highlight), Kortrijk (this one), Passchendaele (God Dethroned highlight) and Metal Méan (next review). Get cash, fill the beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel and off!! Gent is a lovely old city, filled with ancient merchant houses next to two rivers (Leie and Schelde), some castles (with infamous torture chamber ;) ), some breweries of old and a stench of sewage in the entire city… we got a Dulle Griet (named after an infamous Gent warrior maiden and a gun so big Gentenaren are happy it never fired) in Café De Dulle Griet and a Max Of The House (1,2 liter of 7,6 per cent beer in a glass I had to pawn my shoe for :lol:

But getting onto Alcatraz itself was chaos to the max. No volunteer knew where we’d have to be, we got even shooed away from Expo Center, where our car was to be parked >< No shuttle bus, no wrist band office, no shade and no one caring at all we’d be in misery. Wanda hates it dearly if she doesn’t know what to expect and a night of beers with Westfriesians Gerlof and Wilfred doubled her idea to quit whatsoever before a band played. I was sooo stupid to get drunk after a day of incertainties… I even had to pay full euro for that damned trip to the Expo! 3 hours and no supermarket or ATM near… extra payment for what? Call it tourist tax and I believe you but that question wasn’t even answered!! Best part of the first night in Kortrijk was the afterparty of the drum cycle of Kortrijk’s performance (some 15 kids playing drums simultaneously) with loads of AC/DC and Skynyrd. Gerlof thought he died on Friday…

The first band on Alcatraz 2019 main stage ‘The Prison’ was Crobot. The band does an easylistening set of stoner, but it gets worrisome when the singer opens his mouth. Gladly Nervosa opened the Swamp Stage (the tent) with a furious set in good sound with a full tent in front of them. Nice: the Kreator cover Betrayer. Wanda felt I betrayed her getting so drunk. We soon found some acquaintances, of which I had not expected any more than Peter (Lord Belial) and Rob T. Marcel IX was around, Coen & Wortel and the Carnation guys. They were set to play on Saturday, but that’s of later concern. Literally. See Saturday part. Marcel sure as hell pushed me to go see Helstar; little did he know I hated it from beginning to end. Described as ‘pioneer of speed metal’ in the leaflet, all I heard was whiny heavy metal third class. I knew the Carnation guys, Erwin included, were hot for Demolition Hammer! It was that Wanda picked me up otherwise I’d be single again, but a lot of the harm done was blown to a memory when Steve, James, Derek and Angel were done with the sound check and washed the weekend clean. We went over our heads to the diabolical fast and aggressive music, violent lyrics and even more violent circle pit from the second song on (Neanderthal after a blistering Skull Fracturing Nightmare). I had to protect Wanda song by song, as the crowdsurfers were crazy as fuck. Never mind the leaflet and a sign next to each stage forbidding to fly :) We also got Human Dissection, Infectious Hospital Waste, Carnivorous Obsession, Crippling Velocity and Aborticide when the band had to make an abrupt stop! No .44?? Nope, the organizers were so strict the band was baffled as much as we were then. Wanda got a guitar pick and I got thanked by both Steve and James for freaking out.

Some organizers will never learn, I guess. After the abrupt stop to the highlight of a week Belgium so far, Firewind got to main stage. What a waste of air and extinguishers >< Back to the Swamp for Vltimas, but as it doesn’t really hold my favorite musicians ever (of Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy and Aura Noir) we got bored by Dave’s space cowboy set and left. When My Fart is Murder befouled the air we got into the tent again to experience the Napalm Death sound check. Loud and chaotic, just like the set the Brits played. Wanda had never seen them and enjoyed it so much I sneaked out for some ND cotton and returned ;) The band played all favorite songs, held plenty of politics mumbo jumbo but stayed true’till the end. The band turned the tent into Crowdsurffestalooza but thanks but no thanks to the lights I didn’t stay’till that end. I met a man who was impressed by my Neckwreckers set (thanks Torty, Stach!) but even more impressed by the MDF shirt underneath. He told me he was bar personnel at the Ottobar and he got a beer ;) Oh yeah Wanda got a picture of a ND Set list:
- Unchallenged Hate
- Instinct of Survival
- Continuing War on Stupidity
- When all is Said and Done
- Smash a Single Digit
- Standardization
- Suffer the Children
- Breed to Breath
- Scum
- Life?
- The Kill
- You Suffer
- Dead
- Silence is Deafening
- How the Years Condemn
- Nazi Punks Fuck Off
- Siege of Power
And there are even songs crossed out HA HA HA Napalm Death had 50 minutes, so to speak ;)

I was so sweaty I had to rush to the tent for a clean shirt and a hoodie; Sodom was about to deepen the trenches Napalm Death left :cool: so I brought my Westwoudse AC/DC Fans shirt :cool: I didn’t get to front row, but the band had such a bad sound near stage I didn’t mind retreating a bit. Fanboyness is for later, I thought. We had seen ourselves on the big screens StuBru had planted, Alcatraz is broadcasted live through Studio Brussel. See if we can find any streams; from band perspective we were left from center at the beginning of the show. Tom Angelripper was alone on stage during the intro, did three bass strokes, then Husky followed before Blackfire and Jorck opened up their HM Bass pedals. Here’s the set list:
- Tribute to Moby Dick
- Silence Is Consent
- The Crippler
- The Saw Is the Law
- Outbreak of Evil
- Conflagration
- Agent Orange
- Blasphemer
- One Step Over the Line
- Partisan
- Tired and Red
- Remember The Fallen
- Bombenhagel

When Sodom nearly was finished, Wanda got out of the tent and we met the Demolition Crew!! The guys were so thrilled we’d freaked out, they had to have a picture with us and, of course, vice versa. See Wanda’s FB for details haha. She also got an original Demolition Hammer sticker to add to the beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel, as we see co-ownership of the car by now. In the meantime Uriah Heep was already playing for quite some time and Rob was all over it. He wanted to film it and add it to his YT account. I thought nothing bad of the band, but meeting Rob and Peter during Uriah Heep held a huge ‘ouwe lul meets ouwe lul’-moment hihihi. For fifty years we still haven’t been able to eradicate those geezers, they stand their ground. What a change of mood happened next: from the Prison stage with Uriah Heep we heard Roger Glover’s Love is All from El Presidio (rock bar with beer in glass) and Vio-Lence made its way to the Swamp stage… a band that had met high expectations (Ronald of Overruled even said this band was the sole reason to come to Belgium) but never had my attention… Let’s stay positive and say ‘the vocals killed it’, or ‘the sound could be better’… who am I kidding? We hated it. I will never be thrilled by Sean Killian’s vocals, I think. Eternal Nightmare is an album I almost instantly deleted from a tape that was given to me.

By then, Wanda was already on front row for Saxon. The band had brought their famous Eagle set and it looks fantastic! The band was in for a treat, as they (still) celebrate their fortieth anniversary with a possibility of a live recording. Clearly, Saxon played Alcatraz before, as the band goes to length to thank and greet Alcatraz crew and audience. First thing I saw when a cameraman shifted his gear towards the raging audience: Wanda!! Here’s what I wrote:
- Motorcycle Man
- Battering Ram
- Wheels of Steel
- Strong arm of the Law
- Denim & Leather
- 4 more songs
- They Played Rock ‘n’Roll (with fantastic eighties photo- and film footage of Motörhead, Girlschool, Iron Maiden, Angel Witch and the likes)
- The Eagle has Landed (Wanda on screen again :cool: )
- Battalions
- Dogs of War (no Exploited members around :) )
- And the Bands Played on
- Solid Ball of Rock (yep, with 3D-impression of a demolition ball/hammer \m/ )
- To Hell and Back
- Power and the Glory (a very, very young family in big ear muffs, one of the kids in denim freaking out. He got my Eagle has Landed patch and the mother was in tears. Good tears)
- Heavy Metal Thunder
- Crusader
- 747 – Strangers in the Night
- Princess of the Night

Ome Biff did it again! 68 years old and still trying to reach that second high C! (the first one failed ;) ) You can say anything, but the energy this band has, is an anchor for many artists around this genre!! The sound was amazing, the show effects all work pleasantly, the band is happy on any stage so it seems. Biff doesn’t actually do that much, but his interaction with fans, band and crew(s) is awesome to watch. From afar or from front row, it is a pleasure to see this. Biff also announced Saxon was making room for Mr. Åkerfeldt & Co. I thought ‘leave immediately’, Wanda agreed. What we heard of Opeth from the tent wasn’t that cocky and sucky like last times they played, but still, even a (nearly) Black Water Park set couldn’t get me back to Swamp Stage. Dry humor OK, but for once, stop pissing off metalheads ‘just because you don’t own +20,000 LPs’. Ugghhhh. Tomorrow: Deserted Fear and Carnation. Hahh!!!

Breakfast at Alcatraz is a mess. OK, the food is plenty and pretty good at the camping site, but the volunteers don’t give a flying fuck if you’d paid or not, if you took about the amount of an orphanage to eat, only when a coffee spills you hear someone reacting? We bought the expensive breakfast vouchers (€ 12,50 or € 6 per person a day; ‘order now or they’ll be sold out’????), but apart from Friday no one saw what leaflet we had. So, Wanda packed her plate double as I ate ‘only one’ piece of egg/bacon/bread. I was happy she did, as the food on the terrain wasn’t really top notch for her. I didn’t mind, but Wanda’s intestines protested until we reached Ieper…

Coming back to Swamp Stage already gave a foul mouth: it was announced Carnation wouldn’t play today, but uncertain when they would on Sunday. I decided to stick around the small tent The Morgue between bands, hear/see if Deserted Fear would check sound/begin/play. We preferred good conversation (Riffs – Goddess – Goes Erik) over the first few bands anyway, as Buried Tomorrow screeched us away, Fifth Angel squeaked a bit, Sanctuary already missed but so far no Mahne… First band we did see was also shortlived, as Strid shooed Wanda away the minute he opened his mouth for Soilwork. Ronald tried to convince me to join him to Flotsam & Jetsam, but we’d rather eat. Ahh, XXL fricandel for only 2 coins ‘with loads of sauce’, so I ordered chili sauce and mayonnaise, but now I had to pay 4 coins! What the fuck, no way!! Keep your sauce abundance then, fat ass! Wanda told she’d regretted coming here more and more, and today I agreed as there still was no sign of Fabian… U.D.O. refused to play Accept songs but why the fuuu does every single riff the band plays have an Accept feel? Or even a full Accept riff-rip off! Every song I hear Midnight Mover, or a riff from Monster Man, Russian Roulette or whatnot. Wanda said ‘Udo sounds like a troll’ and turned her head violently towards The Morgue, where no Simon was present too…

I was hoping Hypocrisy would bring in some joy as I saw Wanda’s mouth edges sink deeper and deeper. The band’s intro was a full hit: AC/DC – Rock‘n’Roll Train + Fractured Millennium; to be followed by
- Valley of the Damned
- End of Disclosure
- Adjusting the Sun
- one I can’t recall
- Pleasure of Molestation – Obsculum Obscenum – Penetralia medley
- Fire in the Sky
- by then, we were heading for the tent – hoodie – fruits – bread
The one message that did get through (my boss’ iKolereding is at home, I brought my Nokia but it’s in the tent) concerned Peter’s view on Thin Lizzy: ‘hopeless’. I saw a tribute to Phil and Gary, but kept reminding ‘not the Neville brothers’ and Killer on the Loose. Ricky Warwick can sing a bit, but in my eyes not good enough to host The Lizzy like this. I’d rather turn back time an hour and hear Roswell 47 live… off to bed. Peter and Rob did see Avatar (for a bit) and mentioned ‘Circus Renz is in Kortrijk’; the amount of adolescents in ghastly make up overwhelmed us all day. Earplugs, off.

Some parts of Alcatraz are harder to ignore than Avatar fans: the band hailing the early visitors played stupid Dutch tunes (I AM NOT GOING TO MENTION WHICH) and let’s piss them off: The Kenny’s kennen ut nie!! © Wanda hahaha. And they played every friggin’festival day!!

Time for some real music: CARNATION!!! The band played diabolically loud, tight as a rotting corpse in peat soil and infectious like Ebola! Of course we stood first row, about twenty minutes before The Swamp became Ground Zero and had a lot of fun interacting with the band. In return, Wanda got a set list, I’ve got another one of Jonathan’s guitar picks and we both bare Simon’s blood stains on our denims. Here’s the set list, later to be signed ‘to commemorate Thomas Wouters’: [thank you Simon, Yarne]!
- The Whisperer
- Hellfire
- Plaguebreeder
- Hatred Unleashed
- Sermon of the Dead
- Disciples of Bloodlust
- Necromancer
- Chapel of Abhorrence
- Fathomless Depths (‘for Thomas, our friend of Bodyfarm’. Note, until then I had no idea yet :’( )

AWESOME!! GREAT!! COOL!! ‘fill in other praises’ :) :lol: \m/ But what a downfall happens, as Anvil is on Prison stage now… the sound is OK but the songs really, really suck. Happily we return to front row in The Swamp for Unleashed. I wasn’t in for another near-brawl (like during Sodom) so I parked Wanda at the gate and took my place halfway the tent. What does Johnny do: spit his vile about Christianity, society in general and the lack of people with mind strength over our heads, supported by an awesomely tight band. All he has to say is ‘Welcome Warriors’ and all hell breaks loose in the swamp. The sound is raging and sharp, the band blazing and sharp, the lights doable and sharp, the audience bashing sharply, need I mention sharp? I was so under the atmosphere I had to buy another Unleashed ‘something’ for Wanda, but didn’t get further than Goddess’Harm in that Dutch Denim of mine. He was surprised Defender made it to the denim, but not Goddess of Desire? As I bought about three-hours-of-pay in stripe patches (denim # 16 bought in Gent) I will gladly cover Epica (a bit :) ) with it. Returning to the Swamp for the remainder of Unleashed was a good idea. Theyplayed:
- Blood of Lies
- Lead Us into War
- The Longships are Coming
- The Dark One (‘off the cassette version’, Johnny tells us :) )
- Stand Your Ground (no WT on my Dutch Denim *grin* )
- I have Sworn Allegiance
- The Hunt for White Christ
- Hammer Battalion
- Into Glory Ride
Strange fact: Johnny Hedlund doesn’t seem to know how long he’s actually going to play, as since the ending of Stand Your Ground he announced each song as the last. We remained near the tent and I had an Away moment for myself: Voïvod drummer Michel Langevin stood next to Unleashed’s performance and greeted me \m/ Mainly because of Metal Church fucking up again (ehh Mike Howe fucked up again) that is. The following basket of chicken did NOT do any harm haha.

The security staff of Alcatraz are not really followers of their own rules. A sign ‘no flash lights’ is obeyed “for the band performing”, but the no smoking sign is ignored by nearly the entire mosh crew in front. Also the ‘no crowd surfing’ plate is highly laughed about. Also, a few of the crew members try to hand out set lists and guitar picks beforehand. Wanda gets offered a Voïvod set list beforehand, I stick to my paper and pen for
- Post Society
- Psychic Vacuum
- Obsolete Beings
- The Prow
- Iconspiracy
- Order of the Blackguards (!)
- Overreaction (!)
- Fall
- Voïvod
Snake is a clown, unbelievably funny in his eighties denim (feat. Carcass, Discharge, Possessed and a beautiful Voïvod sign; probably drawn by Away himself) and movement on stage; Chewie with a huge daisy on his chest and Rocky rocking his beard off. Old days relived, not circling about early goldies but still a firm grip on modern Voïvod music, this was a killer gig. All we have of the promised set list is a blurry picture of a man that rushed away for Sacred Reich… no problem. We had a great time with the band, the audience and each other… and headed out for said Sacred Reich. The band had started with a new track, soon to be followed by Who’s to Blame and Ignorance, a massive but non-violent pit occurring instantly. I see people pushing tears of pure joy away, instantly reliving Dynamo Open Airs, Heavy Sound festival gestures and tour shirts of 1990 Sepultura… I am amongst believers. Friends. Acquaintances. Freaks, if you count the washed away Avatar schminck. Sacred Reich will never let you down, Phil Rind’s grin will see to that. I had had no set list but a can of Red Bull from that security dude and it freaked me out, not wanting to stand still AND not wanting to join the Sacred Pit. See if I remember most of the set list:
- New song
- Who’s to Blame
- Ignorance
- New song
- Love/Hate
- Manifest Reality
- Surf Nicaragua

I met Peter near the RockTribune signing booth and he was the one to break the news about Thomas… he apologized 7 times for breaking my day, but how could he not? We were offline for nearly a week and when we entered Gent it wasn’t on MA yet… but the Carnation fellows sparked an idea: get that set list signed “for Thomas”; Simon gladly scribbled that near his signature. We didn’t have to wait long for the Sacred Reich signing session as well, so I grabbed a promotional Alcatraz card and said hello to Phil. He was happy I remembered Dynamo Open Air but I forgot to ask if he’d remember if he was supposed to play Forever Young 1990 hihi [he was in the hospital in Hoorn then, the rest of the band WAS in Grootebroek \m/ ]. Dave McClain on the other hand was impressed by the beer coins on my Dutch Denim and said ‘hold on a sec’, fiddled his jacket and handed me an original consumption coin from his favorite bar Alameda Eagles in California! That’s great!! What to do, put it on my Dutch Denim?? I don’t know yet. Wiley Arnett just smiled at me and newcomer Joey Radziwill is even younger than the last Sacred Reich piece ever put out hahahahaha. Great guys!! Walking around we spotted some Deicide, but Glenn’s head was clearly still in Florida and sounded muffled. The band was OK though. We’d rather have an Hommage for a Chocolate Muffin ;)

We were perfectly close to Prison stage when Rose Tattoo had begun. OK, I was in emotion, but what better than a band that had several members deceased before this show? Think of Pete Wells, the founder of The Tats original slide driven sound? Mick Cocks, Lobby Lloyde, Dallas 'Digger' Royall, Ian Rilen, Neil Smith?? The band never gave up and now, some 13 years since Wells passed away is still a band on the run, on the move, progressing (slightly) towards their 45th anniversary, still sounding angry and well-thought, never the easy way rock’n’roll? ‘Get ready to board the train’, Angry shouts and off they go:
- Bad Boy (for Love)
- Scarred for Life
- One of the Boys
- Assault & Battery
- Rock’n’Roll Outlaw
- Fast Eddy & The Butcher (!)
- Rock’n’Roll is King
- City Blues
- Freedom’s Flame
- Sweet Love
- We Can’t Be Beaten
- Nice Boys (don’t Play Rock’n’Roll)
- Astra Wally (encore)
I hope for many music lovers Rose Tattoo will keep playing for as long as Angry will stand on his feet. Rose Tattoo is a well oiled machine, that leaves room for individual members, slide or not, pounding rock’n’roll music played the way it should be: juuuuust loud enough. We emptied our pockets of coins, as Powerwolf sure as hell sounded ‘fabricated’, Tesseract ‘overdone’, Meshuggah ‘not worthy of notes’ :) and Rotting Christ ‘not rotten anymore’. Back at the tent we heard Avantasia try to overpower Soulfly’s sound check hihi. They couldn’t. In a faraway past I owned the first Avantasia record, but I have no clue if it’s still worth checking out. We are tired. The Soulfly drum check is so loud, even Wanda had her pillow over her head and mine too.

With our Sunday breakfast leaflet we seemed to be able to get breakfast. We chose to get coffee and suddenly needed new coins for that? I don’t dig that anymore. With a huge effort I scraped some € 6 out of my wallet for 4 coffees and moved on, back to our beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel. To get to Ieper, to see Passchendaele (I have to, as I once said ‘Passiondale is THE best record of the first decade of the new millennium’) but Ieper was a huge letdown for both of us. I’ve never felt less welcome and more unsafe than in Surmont B&B. A student wouldn’t live there for a fiver a month, but we paid €166 and left after one night. In horror. Way too steep stairs, uneven stairs, an open water cabinet, windows nearly falling out, bumping heads AND WE’RE BOTH UNDER 175 cm small! Add a rabid try to muffle the complaints behind the stitched carpet and I left steaming angry. But after a bad start Alcatraz WAS worth it. Demolition Hammer, Carnation, Rose Tattoo and Sacred Reich were absolutely amazing. Voïvod cool, as was Unleashed. Pity we never knew if Deserted Fear DID play. We drove home on Tuesday, only to return to Belgium on Thursday for Metal Méan: Asphyx, Tormentor, Primordial. Jürgen and Sylvia. Metal.

[edit: we got to Durbuy and Méan, via Westwoud that is, but the hassle for tickets totally fucked us up. See http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... -demoliton for this one's reactions and http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/thread/747/metal-show if you're member or guest of Metal Tavern]

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed Sep 04, 2019 4:07 am 
 

Volta Metal Night XII, Amsterdam, August 30th 2019 feat. Mutator, Degenerate

Wanda keeps a keen eye on bands she likes, as do so many people. But Mutator, especially since my 40 Year Metalhead Anniversary Party last year, is highest on her priority list. We’d known for ages Mutator was to pulverize Amsterdam, we’d only never been to Volta before. I thought ‘if we are on internet, we probably only find physics lessons or pictures of people with hairs standing right up. Like I have when I wake up haha. One of the reasons to go was Stormram, I thought, as I had heard singer/guitarist Nicky talk about it on Pitfest, but someone in the band decided a week ago he’d be too drunk to play (beforehand? Pff. Douche.) so another band was fixed. Belinda would join us by train, Peter hesitated so long if he’d pick us up and drive, he didn’t go at all… Shredded Ed brought more good news: we’re on the Mutator guest list! Thanks, Ed, appreciated! But Wanda also didn’t make it there, as the second tropical heat wave of the month hit her hard :( she did gave me some beer money for the first round(s) so I got to Hoogkarspel with cold HJ to spare. Even my brother Toon’s neighbor, who I’ve known since Kindergarten, asked what I was up to with the HJ. ‘Slasher party with friends’, I told Sander ^^ We had fun in the train, as there was some transvestite party in Amsterdam the same evening ;) Colorful pictures, to say the least ^^

Coming to Amsterdam CS meant a huge swerve through the station, as Belinda had not eaten anything (party with school, she said through small eyes ;) ) and needed cigarettes. Fine, where’s the bus? It will be there in… just missed. OK, we walk the mile, the weather invites us to do so too. From a big distance we already saw Ed and Jeffrey standing outside, smoking of course. Belinda would be called ‘Wanda’ for about twenty seconds and we were in. We saved a fiver each :lol: Volta is a small venue, halfway Cayen (height of the ceiling), Manifesto (stage in a corner) and the small hall of Gebr.DeNobel (size). They serve Heiny, so I was glad I had my cooling-down-HJs before ;) Belinda soon met a guy from Amsterdam and we happily shared a few beers before Infestus (sp?) came to stage. The band told the audience in broken English they were a thrash metal band, but what I heard I’d rather refer to Bad Religion but with a Show No Mercy touch. Only a little Show No Mercy, but still ;) The three piece band clearly wasn’t Dutch, but where they came from or if I heard the name of the band correct I don’t know. The drummer was so ‘intense’, he got out of his… Bad Religion shirt ;) the second song in. Not that his drumming improved by it, but swoah. After a couple of songs it all got too much alike. Not bad for a starting band, you’d say, but these guys clearly weren’t THAT young… Add a lack of interaction on stage and off and you know what to do next. We decided to hit the street again and talk metal. Not to be rude to anyone, no of course not, but we came to see Mutator so my visit to the street talk was short. I didn’t have to hurry to get on front row, as many people stayed near the bar or outside. Pity them. Alex did bring a second guitar, but not for Crystal Mountain, Ed told us smiling widely. Oh, new material to be penned? Yeah, they plan to visit the studio somewhere in Autumn. Swift sound check, no time for intros, BS or whipwhap, KILLLLLL!! I handed the set list, signed and all, to Belinda:
- Karma
- Revenge
- World War Ten (me shouting and winking to Nick, who wrote it. He must have hurt his cheeks smiling back. But still tight as ffkk!!) \m/
- Manipulation (‘a bit autobiographic’ Ed told us, smiling again. But where’s Belinda??)
- Curse the Gods [DEDICATED TO ME]
- Ruined for Life (Thomas Wouters moment :’) )
- Hit
- Shiva’s Night (resembling Eternal Dark a lot, hey how old was that again? :) \m/ Didn’t Jeffrey write this? Gotta ask again)
- Sick Society
Apart from a minor glitch in Alex’cabinet it was flawless! Awesome to see Ed even sharper than before, good to know he’s out of booze completely now, Jeffrey fitting like a glove in this band, Nick isn’t so electrostatic anymore, THIS BAND IS IT!! I can’t wait for more new material, especially now I know Ed is going to draw the portraits of the band members ‘with a green-ish flame’round ‘em’ so the artwork is going to slay also!

Out for another short gulp of fresh air outside before the ‘main’ band of the night would appear: Degenerate from Amsterdam. The band, with (ex-) members of Dauthuz, Infantry and Hallowed Fire present, is in for a Beneath the Remains-like party. It feels so good to kinda expect what to hear, as I know BtR by heart of course, but still it’s a little different than last time (see http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... radictions ). The ideas this band has, simply sound way more crystallized than last time. For an idea:: https://www.facebook.com/sisi.mail/vide ... 591820990/ I looked at Belinda and knew she was having way too much fun to go home and looked at Ed: we’d take the 11:23 PM train. I never knew Ed was such a rabid and rapid walker, I had to rush to stay in his presence. But we both knew we’d have to wait for an hour to get the next AND the next one would take nearly an hour longer to get to Hoogkarspel. IF I’d get to Hoogkarspel, NS has funny rules in the night schedule :o I was so happy I had bought a bottle of still water as ‘Wanda’s first round’, it got empty before Zaandam ;) Coming to Hoogkarspel was fun too, as Sander asked ‘how was it?’ HA HA HA, one awesome, one blubber and one ‘just OK’. He should visit some show with me, it was him and his brothers that had a spare Metallica ticket last year :cool: This was a great trip. In the train home I got an app by Belinda saying she’d taken the 00:23 train as her Amsterdam ‘buddy’ turned to be outrageously drunk and not really in for a quiet night anymore ><. Good thinking, Bel! I got home without any more delay or dismay and even told Wanda everything she missed. One awesome, one blubber and ‘just OK’. She feels a lot better now, as the temperature wasn’t as killing as before and I help her even more. That’s also metal to me, helping a loved one in need. With metal playing (Witch Vomit? OK. Kreator off vinyl? OK. Acid King? OK. Anything for my love) we survive anything. Live or spinning, it’s still metal. And Mutator FUCKING KILLS!

Happy reactions of members or guests via http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... -amsterdam

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:54 am 
 

Schoonebeek Deathfest III, feat. Cancer, De Boo Schoonebeek, Sept.7th

This festival was bound to be visited by the same crew that lost a refreshment bag (with Feyenoord logo), some shirts (left somewhere near a merch stand), money for drinks and the spare brain cells for the shear amount of HJ’s that day… Schoonebeek Deathfest III would bring in Cancer, Sven GroB, the return of Burial and more to De Boo. I think the tickets were sold a day or two after the 2018 edition, as was the cottage ticket. It took me three simple text messages to reach Stip: ‘Schoonebeek next week, wanna join?’ “Yes” ‘have a ticket yet?’ “No” ‘now you do’ :lol: Bram got his about the same way ;) The first announcement also held Decaying, the Finnish death metal tanks that hardly played The Netherlands before. Add Supreme Carnage and some German friends might show up ;) We’d travel early but I needed Stip to confirm at his door he was awake and ready to join ;) Coming to Bram’s house he told me, somewhat proud, he’d gotten his own ticket. Uhm, we’ll see what to do with spare ticket # 1008 (over the years…)

Driving to Schoonebeek meant 156 km of pure death metal. Fleshcrawl, Fleshcrawl and then some ;) but also, when we stopped for Bram’s cig break… Cancer! A man with a weird Roman tat on his forehead saw we’re metalheads and said ‘do you know that dude? He’s in Cancer. Look around, there are the other two’. I wanted coffee, as did John Walker, so now we have a picture of the four of us with two happy Cancer members and John showing ‘all I wanted was coffee, not sweaty metalheads today’ HA HA HA. I fully understand John’s grumpiness, as the driver told us the band had to drive at 3 AM to get to the airport, fly over to Amsterdam, be picked up by a doof and then meet some fans at the gas station :) One final ‘we see you guys at the front’, by a smiling Ian Buchanan, and we’re driving again. That we’d miss the first band was not the biggest deal, as Trial by Death played OK death metal, but without any audible singer present. By then I skipped the spare ticket as it was raining so hard I had no fun waiting outside for some guys without tickets. It wasn’t sold out by far, so to speak. Also, by then I was already crumbled by the Sven-hug, being cuddled by his lovely wife Dany and handing out beers from beyond the counter hihihi. Maarten msd was already looking into his HJ bock by then ;)

HJ on tap and Westfriesians present, I told you about that before. But with the Steenwijk crew also present, I knew I wouldn’t be out of beer long, all day, all evening. Rob and Bart soon sweeped beers with us, as did my old school buddy Eijsing. Great to see you guys again! We were waiting for Supreme Carnage as a group and as a group we fully enjoyed the fierce, tight set the Germans trapped us in. Wanda was so happy with the band she bought nearly all patches present, now it’s time to search for decent places to put them ;) She also got the set list (thank you Nova!)
- Intro (‘stupido’)
- The Fire Prevails https://youtu.be/pRFcWCcjupM
- Lies of the Civilized
- Fried to Death
- 1008 Pints of Death (...)
- Bubonic Plague
- Sodomized
- Sentenced intro
- Sentenced to the Cross
- Morbid Ways to Die

Now it was getting time for some bands none of us had seen before. To begin with Galvanizer from Finland. The band played some really cool OSSDM and the first crowdsurfer was noted ;) Bram liked it so much he bought Stip and himself a Galvanizer pin and a shirt. Stip pinned it to his denim and said ‘finally a pin of a band nobody knows of’ :) and be happy with it. https://youtu.be/2dwNZ433HFc excellent opener of that YT hihi. Next up was Italian Ekpyrosis. The band mixed a lot of Morbid Angel with a lot of Krisiun, so I don’t think it’s all that original. But some people liked it, so be it. We got out for the ‘real festival foods’, namely fries, fricandellen, simple burgers and bami-discs. I had to eat, as last year’s night experience wasn’t that friendly to my stomach. That Slaughterday played too slow wasn’t helping either. Now, the band that always had been given top marks by Aardschok but always minor marks by me: DeadHead. The Kampen band is much more a Kreator-rip off than a Kreator tribute and I only recognized one song. Kudos to the Bodyfarm merch the guys wore, but I was underimpressed. Again. Was that the Aardschok favorite deaththrash band ever? Uhm, no.

It was getting dark and time for Decaying. The French band made friends, that can be said. The überheavy, grinding death metal was like a trip through memory lane featuring sounds by Bolt Thrower, visions of Benediction and a Grave feel. Here you can see John dB and Big Peter having a good time: https://youtu.be/1hfs9KF6O3Y Burial also felt good. After a few let down bands (Ek, Sday, DH) they helped me save the day even more. They played nearly the same set as last year, but with a little more fire. I think they played nearly the entire Relinquished Souls album! The band themselves were thrilled to be invited again: https://youtu.be/ZctZTcY0Z9U

Cancer was, as said, headlining today. We soon made eye contact with Ian and John seemed to have finally awoken by the coffee ;) The band went in like a disease on famished youngsters. Not that the overall age on Schoonebeek was juvenile, not by far. The audience freaked out to an excellent sound and with minor lights I also went over my head. The set list was a prey for the girl next to us, but I have a picture:
- CFC
- Witch Hunt
- Into the Acid
- Die Die / Tasteless Incest medley
- Down the Steps
- To the Gory End
- Bloodbath
- Garotte
- Burning Casket
- Hung Drawn & Quartered
- Dethroned Emperor

Such a killer set! Cancer thrilled! Cancer beat us! It was great! Pity the bouncers did everything to get everybody off so soon, I wouldn’t have minded to make this last longer. But for Alwin R it clearly had been long enough. He was so distraught/drunk he kept moaning ‘where’s Maja?’, ‘I need Maja’, we asked ‘where is she then?’ “In the car, all alone, I want Maja” ‘Where’s the car?’ “Somewhere, somewhere there”. Stip and me did not have much choice than to grab Alwin, who we nicknamed Willie by now ;) throw him in my beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel and tour Schoonebeek for a grey Punto or Vito. Uhm, that’s quite a different car ;) We even got as far as friggin'Klazienaveen and still no grey car. No Vito, no Punto. Coming back to the bus stop near De Boo Wanda and Bram had found the grey Vito (not Punto :) ) and Maja! It turned out their company car was only 20 m away from the exit… In the cabin we still laughed about Willie, who can’t do shite without Maja, on TV nor on a festival.

Breakfast at Camping Emmen meant eggs and ham and LOADS of coffee. I made sure not to forget my refreshment bag (ow, I only brought the slim edition of it HA HA HA) and drove on. No need for Stip to drive today, as I wasn’t so inebriated as last year… but Wanda lost her bag with CDs. Coming to Enkhuizen we were greeted by Joke and Vok (Bram’s parents) who not only made soup and tostis, but also wanted to hear the entire story. Lovely people, thanks a million for such great welcome. Next year’s edition will start October 1st, as the presale already starts. No need for a thought, we go. Cabin ticket, four festival tix, toothbrush and sleepshirt, we’re ready for DEATH METAL.

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:31 am 
 

Metal Experience Fest II, Sept.28th 2019, feat. Bodyfarm, Asphyx, Soulburn, Distillator

After last year’s great experience (namely Graceless ;) ) we did not have to wait long for a headliner to be told to us: it was Paul Baayens that said ‘shush, we play Leiden in September’; that it would be Metal Experience Fest II was soon acknowledged by Eus, Kick, Remco and Koen. Great flyers, would that also mean great shirts? ;) We’d see. Any festival shirt with the name Asphyx on it is worthy in my collection :) especially the iconic logo the band has. It would be even more special to us, as Bodyfarm would do their first show with the new album AND sung by Remco Kreft. Would it be an album presentation or not? … and, after August’s bad news, would it be a tribute to Thomas Wouters? All questions could be answered by a loud YES! Jeroen Z even enlarged the fun by inviting us to his home in Oegstgeest, about 15 minutes by bus from Leiden Centraal and adding the ‘pre party’ to our attention. That Jeroen had club business on Saturday wasn’t a problem, we could tourist ourselves around the old university city of Leiden. A huge detour and verbal guidance through telephone was followed by a warm welcome and a cold Krombacher beer hihi. We’d eat in Leiden, but the most famous snackbar the city has was already closed when we had our second beer in Lazaru’s. We were early enough to get there, but the Chinese next door was helpful too ;)

Coming back to Lazaru’s meant we nearly missed Spectrum of Delusion, the ‘new band’ from Douwe from Akrasial. The band’s sticker said ‘technical death metal’ and that description is justified. Fast, technical, blunt, so to speak. The band has a CD, but didn’t bring any with them. I wouldn’t mind hearing that band again, in contrary to the second band: Indulgence. The songs are meh, harmonies are meh and the singing is meh. Add a meh sound and I think I’d rather bring in https://youtu.be/wnd1NzV51Zk hahaha. Jeroen wore a Melting Eyes shirt and now I know why: this band is friggin’awesome! Mix old school doom with old school death and you get what I mean ; in bands I recognized influences from November’s Doom, Benediction and mid-era-Kataklysm. The band had a set list scribbled on a cardboard box; as the singer Pier explained ‘then it won’t be stolen so easily, saves time every friggin’gig we play’ :)
- Rise From Below
- Beyond these Realms
- Creation Undone
- Time to Die
- Embrace the Madness https://youtu.be/1ihF1kqzfLc
- Bringer of War
- My Final Redemption

As I couldn’t find them on MA, here’s their FB: https://www.facebook.com/MeltingEyesDH/ Only thing we weren’t happy with was the shirt they brought, it’s so aggressively full we rather looked at Jeroen’s copy ;) Little did Wanda know that she got that same copy at breakfast!! Muchos gracias, amigo grande! I do hope we’ll see the band more often, this was really pleasant to be part of. We had seen singer Rob of Hallowed Fire jump and scream around us, but as Jeroen gladly told: ‘we can take the next bus and afpils at my place’; we’d only seen a mere glimpse of the jumpers on stage and were off. In the bus to Jeroen we met an adorable couple who we helped with the suitcases, they’d been on holiday and were excited to see such colorful people like ourselves. I wore my normal Asphyx denim and unthemed shorts, Wanda wore her Dutch Denim and Jeroen wore his Metal Clubs Denim. He’s member of the Dutch Metal Legions and has been invited to heaps of German metal clubs, wearing their patches with pride. No Skullcrushers, Jeroen? ;) Afpilzen was great, as we played some of his favorite vinyls: Bolt Thrower, Behemoth, One Tail One Head and Bodyfarm. Tuck in under a nice Feyenoord bed set (that had been sort of a dream for a long time ^^ ), gone. That Feyenoord would have another role this weekend was of Sunday worry and ‘normal Sunday routine’ ;)

Breakfast was great too. I didn’t realize I’d been eating his carbohydrate free bread but no worries… there was plenty more to choose from. We’d go to the city by bus again and meet up at GebrDeNobel. Being tourist in Leiden is fun. The city is old, there’s a lively city center and plenty to see/buy seeking for Plato, the record store where Jeroen nearly bought all of his vinyls. We found kitchen stuff, a leather belt for me, a hand full of patches of Harry Potter (all four Houses ;) ), the city herald (for Wanda’s travel bag), Cheshire Cat, ELO and crazy enough, Beherit. Add some new Rory Gallagher 3 CD box, finally found a new copy of Rhythm of the Saints and Pestilence – Presence of the Pest (Live at Dynamo Open Air 1992) and a Sex Pistols fridge magnet hihihi. Soup and bread at HEMA’s and the really great patates Jeroen had advised us… coming to GebrDeNobel we already saw Alwin Zuur, he tried to shoo us out of there HA HA HA slim chance, dude! ^^First man we ran into was Laurens in an Opeth shirt ‘shush, I still have to change for the set’ :lol: I had brought plenty of cash for a great haul: God Dethroned LS, two Bodyfarm shirts, two festival shirts, a hand full of Distillator-, Bodyfarm- and Soulburn-patches and the new Bodyfarm CD… marvelous album!! Pity the Asphyx tour shirt wasn’t of our liking (sorry Paul, Alicia) otherwise we’d even have a fuller locker. We were also in time for the kickoff of the festival in the small hall: Dùh Haegh-thrashers Defazer killed quite a few neck muscles with this blistering set:
- Burning Horizon
- Eneri
- Execution Day
- Manipulator
- The Killer Instinct
- Behind the Shadows
- T.I.G. (whatever that means ;) )

Wanda soon congratulated bass player Maxime, that her bass playing in this band is way better than in Hallowed Fire ^^ Really good band! Now we had to hurry to the big hall, as Distilator was already playing! We had to swerve around Alwin & Christel, Jeroen & Marloes and Immortaliza to get to the front row for a raging set of Distillator! In his rush to get out of the Opeth shirt no one expected him in, he had time to tell new material was nearly ready for release! We wait, we wait… ;) We heard Sacred Indoctrination, a new tune (killer song, no name I could manage to find), Saturation Bombing and a Seasons in the Abyss - Black Magic medley before Megalomania ended a killer set. The band has a lot of new fans since this gig, I can assure that. Jeroen missed at least Megalomania because he’s totally into Asagraum, the all female black metal band. I got in, getting a beer, but it was way too full for my likings and left after shooting some fuzzy pictures. Wanda didn’t even try to get in, she wanted to be as close to Bodyfarm as possible. I ran up to the stage, two big beers in hand, to see my first Bodyfarm show without Thomas and, as it later got the buzz, my first Bodyfarm show with Remco and hìs last. Vieze Pim had been channeling the rumor, I don’t know if he knows more than we do or he’d acknowledge. I expected nothing less than a grand tribute to Thomas and that’s exactly what we got. The band used a projector for the logo, the band’s new album Dreadlord (three new songs to be played) and footage of Bodyfarm in Florida, Bodyfarm on Eindhoven Metal Meeting and Thomas playing his beard off wherever on the planet… it was great. Bram and Alex were intrigued by my idea of a Bodyfarm backpatch and I got the thumbs up from Quinten and Remco. Alwin was a bit jealous about the bigger Anniversary Patch than he had hihihihi. Wanda got the set list, Remy got Bram’s pick but refused it because it wasn’t printed >< so I got it… Bram was furious! The list:
- Manhunt (off Dreadlord)
- Angelreaper (also new)
- Woods of Dismay (another one off the new record)
- The Well of Decay (getting emotional)
- Vortex of Terror (the killer song we shared in tears, as did a mother and her 12 year old daughter standing next to us. Probably related to Thomas)
- The Last Crusade (Remco’s favorite Bodyfarm song, wet eyes on stage too)
- The Dark Age (Martin van Drunen never did this song with Bodyfarm before, now he sang the entire song! Great!! Thanks!! Cool picture of Martin with Thomas)
- Storming Revolution (with footage from the clip, nearly missing my own spot in there :) )
- Unbroken
- Slaves of War (no matter which version, killer song!)

Hearing Dreadlord now, the second spin, when I type, is odd to me. I never thought Thomas would do the entire vocal AND guitar section and it’s heavier and darker than before. Hints of black metal, very fast songs, some Iron Maiden twin riffing too, as if there was a man in hurry and in anger playing… I think this is, for several obvious reasons, along the fact that it simply IS a killer album, my favorite album for 2019. Period. I said it. Album of the year. Show of the year, if you ask me. Exceptional artwork, clear a bell production, well arranged… whoever will fill Thomas’ and Remco’s shoes is going to have a fierce task ahead of him/her. Overwhelming reactions to the gig too, also obvious. But it was well meant, well placed and done with love. The show ended with Thomas’ projection like it’s on MA. What a great ending to one of the most emotional shows I’ve ever seen. Thinking of The Shavers’ final gig too, of course. Cold shivers, warm tears, hot eyes, well trained neck, shoulders, esophagus…
Quickly to the small hall for a glimpse and not much more than a glimpse of Officium Triste. The band did an anniversary show and had a great sound. I waited till the song To the Gallows ended and thanked Pim for a great gig. He heard it, I got the thumbs up and left. I managed to take a picture of the set list:
- The End is Nigh
- World in Flames
- This Inner Twist
- To the Gallows
- Like a Flower in the Desert

Reading my notes I found out I didn’t even have pictures of an Officium Triste show, so I think myself foolish (a bit) for not taking each member photographicly :) Back to the main hall for Soulburn. In Lazaru’s loads of people hinted Remco to do a full six-bands-set next Metal Experience Fest, but I don’t think he’ll manage to a. resurrect Nailgun Massacre, b. scream a Graceless show, c. grunt a Bodyfarm gig and still play d. a fresh Soulburn show after e. nailing a Grand Supreme Blood Court show or f. splut an Ejaculate gig hahaha. And I even haven’t named all his bands *grinning widely* Some others asked whether Soulburn would play Feeding on Angels (ever?) again, reaction of Remco ‘oh, I’ll scribble it on the set list’ :) Soulburn is in great mood again. The band has a vile and loud sound, as the (now) blackened death metal band needs. Wanda smiled wider than a train on a triple track rail when she scored Eric’s set list:
- Intro – Apotheosis Infernali
- Crypts of the Black
- Withering Nights
- Absinthesis
- Claws of Tribulation (commemorating Thomas) :)
- Abyssica
- I Do Not Bleed From Your Crown of Thorns
- Feeding on Angels
- All Bowlly – Eden’s Last Sigh

Amazing! Remco held his word and Feeding on Angels even brought in crowd surfers! I also have a selfie with Immortaliza and Wanda, had a small talk with Eric Daniels and rose my hand to Bob Bachgus, also present. We were in such a good mood, no one I knew needed Toner Low to headline the small hall. I have no idea what they play and as they overlap Asphyx a bit, I don’t need them too. Is this my 30th Asphyx show ever? No, this is the 29th. No matter, it was killer. Again. Band in full swing, full house in full schwung, excellent sound, buckets of interaction, liters of beer and sweat and a nice scam: if they would play MS Bismarck, I’d motorboat Wanda near stage :cool: as she told Martin on Way of Darkness :cool: from the RockHard YT :cool: No wishwash, just this killer set:
- The Quest for Absurdity
- Vermin
- Brandenburg Division
- Wardroid
- Death the Brutal Way
- Asphyx – Forgotten War
- Deathhammer (bro moment with Martin again, again head to head ^^ )
- Wasteland of Terror
- It Came From the Skies
- Der Landser
- Scorbutics
- Forerunners of the Apocalypse
- The Rack
- Death The Only Immortal (dedicated to Thomas, goosebumps!)
- Last One on Earth

Even with a 90 minute set band, crowd, crew, wives and beerdrinkers weren’t satisfied. But the organizers were not planning to overdue the city limits, so the lights went out when the last tones on earth faded out… what a great set, what a great setting, such emotion, such pleasure, such banging, such shouting and whatnot. We thanked bands and organizers, scribbled the date for MEF III in our agendas (Sept. 26th 2020 with Graceless and ‘winner of the Friday’ Hallowed Fire. Remco nearly lost it when he heard what I call a rumor >< ) and emptied the locker (did we take it all??). Wanda, Jeroen and me were exhausted but happy, in the bus to Jeroen’s place Wanda nearly fell asleep. We ‘had to’ wait for Jeroen’s other guests to arrive, it turned out to be Bleeding Gods singer Mark Huisman and his gf Caroline. I didn’t need much afpils anymore and got to bed, placing all stuff so prominently I’d know when I’d forgotten something ;) We had breakfast and a great chat with Mark and Caroline before heading home. I thought I’d lost my sunglasses (it had been on and off weather in the city yesterday) and with a foul mouth I got to the car. No sunglasses… come to think of it I think I forgot the shampoo I got in Leiden as well… but the glasses could be a bigger problem. It took until literally every bag was turned upside down before I found the glasses underneath the bills and papers of the shopping we did. Uhm, OK, no harm done. Glasses in car, Chinese, shave, laundry, Feyenoord beat FC Twente, they didn’t beat them, they Krushed them! 5-1! I took my (Enschede :) )Asphyx Krusher beer to celebrate, but it spewed foam all over the table and I already lost half the content… but it didn’t matter. We had a top weekend, so many friends, so much love and emotion, Feyenoord only made a great weekend an exceptional one. Metal. For Thomas once more. Metal.

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:49 am 
 

Doc’s MetalCruise II, feat. Kaasschaaf, a boat on river Maas, Oct.5th

The first Doc’s MetalCruise was great fun. We saw some 7 bands in great weather, great atmosphere and had a great time going to and from Den Bosch. Who would be there this time, would organizer Alwin R get such a great line up again? Answers: I don’t know (Belinda wasn’t the only one that put her ticket on TicketSwap as she’s a bigger Death Angel fan than a Disabuse one ;) ) and: no, certainly not. No big deal, we support what our Willie does :) The weather could be a problem, but as my beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel doesn’t run on rain and we have a B&B planned, it would all work out. As I wasn’t sure what time to board, we sent a message to the lovely B&BDenBosch that we would have to be early. No problem, just put the bags in the attic and we’re fine. Coffee before heading to the station, a newly coded entrance got our attention ;) We were already welcome in Den Bosch hihi. Coming to Den Bosch station we decided to grab a bite, but both the Döner Delight and Macca were unguarded, so we ended up at BK. The walk to St Janssingel was shorter than I remembered. When we walked the bridge the boat, with piles of cheap beer was already turning… this was our cue ;) Alwin had searched for a sound engineer; we knew a light technician but she’s in Eindhoven tonight… how would the sound end up?

On board to the river Maas was already great fun. We met our Pitfest neighbors Fred and Kristine and they’d brought a Brabant friend called Ben. But who will check our tickets? Alwin had sold 113 tickets and so far only 79 people showed up! No one ever asked about a ticket! Is it going the Alwin way again? Uhm, seeing him swerve on deck and below made me think so, yeah. Pity Dauthuz had to cancel due to family issues, hope everything turns out OK. Slight problem was, Dauthuz was nearly the only reason to board at all… I had no idea if I’d seen Icons of Brutality or Disabuse before and the others were non-known to me… First band, after three separate boat taxis to the Kerkdriel boat, was 3M. No, not the post it memos nor 3,5“discettes, but a band formerly known as Third Machine. Oh. Groovetechnical death metal. Too much bass strings, if you ask me; too slick, as Wanda told. We decided to head upstairs, to the windy but dry sights of Brabant-from-the-river. Great sights, loads of happy and smiling people, loads of decibels from below. The stage had been set on lower deck, as it seemed the captain got pretty crazy of the noise last year. That held an advantage, as crowdsurfing would not be so dangerous anymore hihihi. Marcel IV wasn’t present after all… all we got to see from several bands was a glimpse when one of us needed the water closet… I stayed behind when I heard something so typically Obituary, then so typically Death I kinda knew what would follow… Rotten Remains they are called and play homages to old school death metal, Florida style. So what followed after Cause of Death, Pull the Plug? Yeah, of course, Hammer Smashed Face. See www.facebook.com/remainingrotten/ for info.Vieze Pim was shooting ‘nice mood pictures’ so I already saw myself on Wanda’s FB ;) freaking out to HSF. Wanda got us about an inch thick pile of stickers of the band hahaha. Nice for the green bin :) The glimpse I remember best was Disabuse, but Wanda had my camera then so I couldn’t state I’d seen them ;)

Last band that played we sort of needed to see, we didn’t get to Den Bosch for ‘bóoze only’; Wanda had Bailey’s, Baco, cola, coffe, orange soda and beer; I kept it to a little zip of Bailey’s (no tonic nearby? OK drink) and beers. The last band was Arnhem grindcore quintet Kaasschaaf. The band only has one 7 string bass and one guitar, but heck what was that drummer an animal!! The band, in Spongebob-, Kermit- and Carcass-shirts, rushed through an hour set as if it wanted to catch the last boat back to St Jan… add a nice circle pit, which I destroyed of course and the tour was nearly over. Live footage sent to Kevin ;) Alwin-style return to Den Bosch and it’s over again. But the gates of the dock were closed! A mass of some 100 metalheads climbed the fence, no one had seen there was an open fence not 75 m away :lol: I helped a few metalheads up before Wanda helped me climb and then the first, more clever or less drunk metalheads came from behind the other fence… haha chanceless fun!! The fun wasn’t over yet, as Wanda had found a 20 euro note and the taxidriver accepted it as if it were his sister in law’s dirty undies, but who cared? We got to B&BDenBosch and the neighbors had a friggin’party in the backyard, louder than the equipment on board! A great bed was followed by a great shower, even better coffee and scrambled eggs… If Alwin gets his head clear enough to organize another Doc’s MetalCruise we now know where to book… see what happens. I don’t think Alwin got it all out around, he’d handed over the catering to a commercial caterer… would he turn even or not? At least, we had a great time, even if we only saw a third of the present bands… wobbly metal!

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:42 am 
 

Scandinavia Deathfest, Kraken + Slaktkyrkan, Stockholm Sweden, Oct. 11&12

Due to unspoken tension between us, I haven’t spoken to Daniel in over a year. What he did remember is a deal we had that ‘if Dismember plays, we go. Anywhere’. So, when rumor became truth, I got a text message from him that tickets got in sale THAT INSTANT. Wanda also texted me if I was interested in ‘a Dismember show’; HELL YEAHHHH! Within an hour after that second text I had tickets, let the carnage begin! I had seen Dismember once, missed them in Bergen Norway because of the full black metal slaughterday before, but I had to visit my ancient live list to know when… Wacken 2003. Still one of the coolest festivals I ever went to, never mind the megalomania fest it is now. Tickets got sold out in an hour, now we deal with the rest: flights, hotel, how to get from airport to hotel and such. What the Maryland Deathfest organizers failed to set straight, was when the venue would open… only a few weeks before the festival it got out: first band on Friday would be Wombbath and they play at friggin’2 PM!! We. Fly. At. Friggin’ 2!!! OK, we get there and see for ourselves when we enter… Wanda is a huge Purtenance fan, maybe we’re lucky.

Coming to Schiphol in commuter rush we noticed there was a flight to Oslo only a few minutes after we arrived… it would be some € 500 extra if we’d fly earlier… no. We wait. Watch people in hurry, in rush, with vacation smiles or sad goodbyes, we wait. I even got Wanda some HEMA toothpicks after eating in etappes ;) Never mind used undies in the middle of Departure hall… in Oslo we thought we had an hour, but in that rush and delay we were JUST in time to board. Stockholm Arlanda is their national airport but over half an hour with a speed train to Stockholm City. Take one metro, one tram and one not-understanding taxi driver (he’d never heard of of Kraken and I had all paper excursion work at the hotel ><) and we were finally at Kraken! Forget Purtenance now… first Agga, Käthe, Andrée, Fabian (!), Sven & Dani, half of Rotten Remains and Rippikoulu! The band bashed in violently loud, obscenely heavy and flashy lights… so, Wanda’s the fan, she stayed on front row, I scoured the venue for pictures. The band had brought the new tape and patches, but was already gone by the time I got to the tiny merch stand. Wanda got a plectrum and found a guitar string and a broken drum stick next to stage, no idea from who but they got into Westwoud ;) . Malgosia is still a big Demilich fan, but after some familiar riffs (certainly not from Demilich ><) and a funny way of announcing the next song ‘after trying in Swedish, we try English, which is equally bad’ :) I’m not convinced. Think of a faster version of Benediction, but then on booze. As I had thought Benediction would appear after Demilich (fool herrieman) I got back to the stage and saw unfamiliar heads on stage, illegible logo… oh it’s Unanimated. Their overtly technical, melodic death metal was played way too loud and we got out after one song. Exhausted. With three kinds of train transport, two flights, rush hour and one rush transfer, we’d had it. Sorry for not seeing the real Benediction, but as they’ll appear soon enough (Eindhoven Metal Meeting, I guess) we decided to skip. It turned out Kraken is near Globen Entertainment Area, which is only two tram stops from Mårtensdal, which is three meters from Motel L. Uhm, OK, now we know. No need for afpils (of course), find the pillow and drown in it.

Breakfast at Motel L is awesome. Coffee in big boulders, fresh fruit, plenty of gluten to be devoured, the hall filling up with metalheads in minutes ;) Even Infidel Ed showed up hihi. Wanda was so tired I decided to be tourist on my own. Then I found out Stockholm is an ancient city (1282 AD) and full of water, harbors, old buildings three to five rooms high, the Nobel Society building, City Library and souvenir/commercial stuff. Happily I entered a record shop and got myself a limited edition of Burial Ground by Grave, a special Swedish CD bought in Sweden :) I picked up Wanda, had a final coffee and back to Kraken. At the venue most people waited for the special Dismember merch, which had been delayed. No one near Kraken seemed interested in Iron Lamb in Slaktkyrkan, some 150 m away. We got to Slaktkyrkan after some bands, only to find Goddess Jerry hahahaha. First band we got to see was Putrid Vision, a death metal band from Stockholm itself and one EP released. It sounded OK to us, but nothing world shocking. Get back to Slaktkyrkan? Uhm, no, rather have a few beers with Sven GroB and his lovely wife Dani. That I rather spoke to Sven and Dani also had to do with Sarcasm, the vile sounding blackened death metal band from Upssala. The sound was shrill and too loud, add lights and you know… off.

I saw Centinex with Dave Ingram, who had a great time seeing people go nuts, have beers, bang their heads on terrific old school death metal. He made me tell which show I’d seen him in, which ones were good and which weren’t haha. Let’s say we became friends hihi. We both loved Centinex, so to say. The band had a full and clear sound, not too loud and an audience eager to hear more. Walking around me and Wanda met more German than Swedish friends and had a great time exchanging patches (HJ, Dismember, Asphyx and the likes). I thought I’d pick up a couple of minutes of Birdflesh in Slaktkyrkan, but all I got was merch ;) I couldn’t stay too long to begin with, I didn’t know any Centinex- nor Birdflesh-songs AND Entrails was up next. We watched the Swedes with Mike Hanus, who wasn’t surprised to see his old Fleshcrawl buddy Sven nearby. These bands must have played often together, as I saw many tattoos and hairs fly by haha. After Crawling Death and a new song I thought ‘ffkk the set list, I just wanna have fun. Enjoy real OSSDM in Sweden!! Picture of set list:
- Rise of the Reaper
- For Hell
- The Morgue
- Crawling Death
- No Cross Left Unturned
- Epitome of Death
- To Live is to Rot
- Crawling in your Guts
- Beyond the Flesh
- Unleashed Wrath
- The End

Entrails is popular in Sweden, that’s for sure. The band had seen some attempts to crowd surfing, loads of headbangers and one, very curious pit. Walking around one circle, return to headbanging haha. Wanda got a guitar pick from new guitarist Markus Svensson. Is it really necessary to change drummers and guitarists so soon? Uhm, yeah, if the band’s sound is getting it even tighter than before, yeah. Or is Jimmy such a difficult person to work with? No, I don’t think the latter. Before Kraken was opened today, we’d seen the entire band do odds and ends, just like any band, fiddling with flight cases, having a laugh, have a coffee outside, whatever. As long as Entrails keeps thrilling me, I don’t really care who’s in the band. As long as it doesn’t cost me another My Dying Bride LS, it’s fine :) ^^ :lol: http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... l-entrails [guest or member sign in] Good times!!

More good times entered when Interment got to stage. The placing of the one Interment patch I have is just, like a nice comment on this band is valid. Silly me, I kept walking and it seemed Wanda had lost me? Uhm, I haven’t been outside at all, apart from that three minutes near Goddess’Stand… I didn’t help at all that Toxaemia was on stage now. Why the fkkf is this band so high on the bill? Snel vergeten die mafkezen! For the picture: they’re started in 1989, way before death metal got big, but clearly in 30 years they’ve not learned to play right. Those two demos and one EP are NOT of my liking.

I clearly remember one of the first talks I had with Wanda, it was about Nuclear Assault. That I loved the band to bits, had seen them only 15 years old, sound sabotaged on stage, Connelly falling off stage, that picture on a Fight to be Free poster sleeve, seeing them on Wãldrock, Graspop, MDF and more… would they finally have a good sound? No, it was AWESOME!! Chaotic is their middle name, violence is what they get in return! Violent chaos in front of the stage, with me in a leading role: start a pit, demolish the circle pit, but also get a head to head collision doing so. I had to back out, a.s.a.p… I couldn’t risk another concussion so I looked at Wanda, nearly scaring her with my pain stricken head and left. No Dismember. It was like Andrée said, totally angry, after some silly encounter at the Dismember merch stand (too late, no cards, no Euros accepted, dofferheads behind the counter, people with a page wide shopping card for Dismember stuff, whatever). NO Dismember. But rather sleep than get that feeling of misery or pain once more… We now knew how to get back to Motel L in a hint of the time that it cost the first time, curtains open for needing anything… I awoke and looked at Wanda again saying ‘better bring paracetamol’. She was worried sick, but that’s of later worry. We could have been tourist in the city but I was glad we didn’t. No need for a locker, forgetting the number, haste, wrong train, no… just get back to Arlanda Express, be tourist on the three levels of Stockholm Arlanda airport, eat with a smile, find a robin, see the Messiah- and Fleshcrawl- people walk by, start up Wanda’s FB (if that rotten mobile still works, battery died), drink a bit (non-alcoholic, as my beloved VW Golf diesel Mk II is still in Hoogkarspel) and enjoy each other. The paracetamol worked fine and I thought I’d escaped a third concussion. I had my afpils seeing the Dutch national voetbal team win twice (qualifying round for European championship, two meager 2 – 1 victories) and got on our bed… A great festival, even though we didn’t see a single headliner. The third day was added way too late, if you ask me, as was the timing of the early bands to appear. I did get to meet Jonny Petterson and thanked him, nearly stumbling towards him because of the silly wooden entry of Slaktkyrkan >< but told him I’d missed the Wombbath show. As we missed Wanda’s favorite of the weekend Purtenance; no Undergang, Demonical, Sorcery, Rotten Sound… But Stockholm is great and breathes metal. Death metal. Our metal. If another edition of SDF will appear, I keep in mind we might see more Swedish bands in Sweden. Book differently, come earlier, leave later. Same hotel. Same transportation cards. Same metro exits haha. Same genre: METAL!

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edit: no concussion indeed. When I awoke in my own bed, no more headache. Pfew!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:06 am 
 

Holland Heavy II, feat. Holocaust, Highway Chile performing a special Helloïse set; Iduna Drachten, Nov. 2nd.

Alex once bought the Cosmogony LP from Helloïse and I think I played it more often than he did. I never thought the band would reappear on a stage somewhere, as all members quit the music business or have more fulfilling bands/careers. How big was my excitement when Very’Eavy announced the second edition of Holland Heavy, WITH Highway Chile doing a special Helloïse set? I went over the top haha! To be honest, I had not even seen the band is fully active again… since 1996 haha. So, long story short, Alex got a ticket for his birthday and we’d bring Belinda home. Belinda does her practice period as lights engineer in Iduna in Drachten but due to hard life at the moment she’d rather sleep at her mom’s. A slight problem could be Alex’ son volleyball game, as he’s the coach and when he got the ticket the game schedule wasn’t cast iron yet, especially not the time >< nor venue ><. Mid way compromise: his wife would be the coach-for-a-day. Pff. We can drive early, let Alex taste Wanda’s delicious macaroni and off. I calculated we’d miss the first two bands anyway, but coming to Drachten we saw the last minute or so from Seven Thirty from provence Gelderland. The sound was OK to us and they play some heavy rock. Look at http://www.seventhirty.nl/news.php (I stood next to the photographer when he made this shot with Spanish (!) fans ;) or try https://youtu.be/f--H2vbJWx8 for a taste.

We were soon spotted by Geert and Würzel and got our first beers when Lovell’s Blade got to stage. With this festival you have to rush between bands to get beers, as it takes only 20 minutes for two bands to change. I directly spotted Mike Ferguson, ex-God Dethroned in this band and we liked it a lot! The band plays a heavy metal variety on Aerosmith, but the second guitarist is hardly audible until a double twin lead halfway the set. The left handed Rickenbacker bass is all the better audible haha. Wanda got a set list:
- Dynamite
- Legend in a Day
- Gonna Get Rough
- Against the Grain
- Rollin’On
- Nothing But the Truth
- Make my Mark
- Out for Blood

Alex liked it so much he wanted a patch, but the only ones present were ‘simple’ black and white/white and black normal lettered ones. He wanted the sword on it, but got the shirt instead ;) Third band for us was Together, but I won’t make much sense on a band in shorts, a guitarist with a Slayer shirt on an acoustic guitar and Wanda’s remark ‘way too high Radio Veronica here’. Too commercial for us, out for a look into merch. Wanda got CDs at my remarks: ‘cool’, ‘nice’ or ‘rare’: Lunatics Without Skateboards, Holy Moses and Emerald. No Together album :lol: , none from fourth band Elise as well. I’d seen them on a Heavy Metal Maniacs edition once, but didn’t get my own hint… little brother of Saxon with some Accept vocals. It wasn’t bad but also not really worthy of remembrance… Belinda had arranged her break from lightning duty, door duty and the likes during the Vortex gig. She thought it was a thrash band and as we’re thrashers too, we stuck around. I’m sorry to admit I thought the band moving and playing stiffly, a guitarist with an overgrown permanent and a drummer that was about to have a heart attack there. Why the hell did the singer want to impersonate Fenriz, but some 100 kg heavier and less prudent in his singing/reach/stamina? Best song still: Open The Gates https://youtu.be/806ADLWSfTo hilarious play backing and yes, that wig is friggin’ false hahaha. After Wanda got the set list I got her a patch for her Dutch Denim… no silverware to be sold to us.
- Intro
- Mercenary
- Death at Dawn
- Spiritual Alien
- The Beauty and the Teeth
- Gonna Hit You
- Them Witches
- Rollin’ to the War
- Open The Gate
- Land of the Late

Seeing these merch outings, the term Buttonbroertje fell again. It was a nickname of my eldest brother’s college friends for me, seeing me walk by with 10-15 Normaal buttons, neatly pinned to each blank shirt, driving my mother insane with all the pin holes in them. I was 10 or 9 then, Alex still likes to tease me sometimes with it. Now it was his turn to do that in a positive way, by buying a 6-piece button set from Vortex. I nicked the band’s guitar picks, Wanda got them the normal way haha. Alex insisted I’d have the logo pin on my Dutch Denim, the others are of band members. Highly appreciated, broertje!! Vortex also had a song with two thirds of Killer as special guests.

It was time for something else than beer, Wanda thought; she let me choose what to drink. Lemmy it became, I thought that fit for such Motörhead-lovers as the guys in Belgian band Killer. They performed after Vortex and clearly my prejudice wasn’t felt in the rest of the venue… the band got a full house of headbangers in front of them, shouting lyrics, fistbanging, cheering with their beers and so on. I felt they stayed too long put with their ‘hit’ Monsters of Rock, but it just made Wanda more eager to have something playable by this band. Their conquest of Drachten continued into the audience, on the bar, nearly falling off and keeping playing haha. Judge for yourself: https://youtu.be/932nnyui1pM It clearly wasn’t my band of the day, but the festival’s best choice if you check the reactions. Fine with me.
For me the most important part of the festival was bound to happen next. I have one Highway Chile CD, bought in Baltimore ^^ and they have three Helloïse members in them. Would they do a full Helloïse set or a Highway Chile one with a few Helloïse hits… the latter. I heard Die Hard and Hard Life and the rest was Highway Chile songs. Best response during Heavy Metal Fever, with a small and unexpected pit. The band had brought a whiskey barrel, to be ‘metal infused’. You can subscribe to a website to become a bottle of whiskey that wasn’t rested, but shaken’n’stirred by metal shows. I showed my own Helloïse needlework to Stan Verbraak and got both thumbs up, but no more Helloïse songs… easy to call it a bummer, but I don’t mind. Now I know Helloïse is still active, I think they’ll show up in normal form. Even though Verbraak forced Van Ee, Boogerds and Blaauw to write a more American style heavy metal I don’t think fit for Helloïse; I want to see the real band once. A band I’m not going to do much effort for is headliner Holocaust (the Edinburgh one with the anthem Heavy Metal Mania). The band makes me feel punk is actually started as a reaction to this kind of music, way too wooly, too long solos and few interaction with a willing crowd. The singer/guitarist looks like a hippie in a South Park episode; the bass player is nearly naked and resembles Wattie Buchan… That punk started in 1976 and Holocaust released their first EP in 1980 is of no importance to me. We didn’t even wait for the anthem to be played!!

We got to the car, no need for a greasy bite. I was totally out, there in Alex’car. I snored so loud Alex even stopped to see if his (quite new) engine had a problem haha. I should have taken a few more bites of Alex’ or Wanda’s fries, as my hangover was disproportionate ><. But we had fun. The fun decreased a bit when Wanda read an internet comment to me that Very ‘Eavy quits organizing Holland Heavy, but still we had a great time with sometimes outdated but always fun metal.

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mjollnir
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:14 pm
Posts: 2056
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 6:01 pm 
 

King Diamond at the Lyric in Baltimore...

As soon as King Diamond announced his North American tour, I really did not get that excited. Actually I had given up on seeing this tour; he’s playing Baltimore but not Pittsburgh this time through. I was bummed…so close to my birthday too. I had no idea the devious machinations going on within my whole family….a Conspiracy one would say right under my nose! That’s what makes me the luckiest metal head on the planet. On November 11, 2019, not only was I back in the city of my birth, but I was going to see King Diamond with his entire stage set up in an opera house theater, the way King Diamond was meant to be seen. This was to be epic as fuck!

Before I get into reviewing King’s show, I have to give some time to the openers. This was an enjoyable show from beginning to end. Idle Hands is quite different but incredibly good. Imagine a sick evil love child…the product of 80s post-punk/goth like The Cure or The Smiths mixed with riff laden metal. They were really cool. Lots of atmosphere, killer riffage and solos, and the bass shook the building. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are just fun psychedelic stoner doom. Great old school fuzzy vibe. There are two vocalists who sound just like each other and harmonize brilliantly. The songs were rockin’ and fun and got the crowd warmed up for The King!

We had great seats, 13th row back from stage in the orchestra section and smack in the middle. My wife came to the show. I let her know she would be in the presence of metal royalty. We had the full stereo effect. The lights went out then “The Wizard” by Uriah Heep started playing…one of my all time favorite songs. “St. Lucifer’s Hospital” was the true intro as King is rolled out onto the stage on a gurney by one of his hooded, faceless stage assistants. The crowd was already on their feet by this time. The band appears and they break straight into “The Candle,” one of King’s greatest songs and the perfect opener for a King Diamond show. The sound was incredible. It was loud as fuck but you could hear each instrument, and the vocals so perfectly clear. I have seen King many times, starting in the 80s with the Abigail and Them tours up to the Puppet Master…he has never sounded better. Look at his contemporaries; none of them, with the exception of Michael Kiske, are belting out the notes like they did back in the day.

From the first notes of the show King was in top form and did not miss a beat. The set list was perfect for what I think the direction of the new album is going. The release of the first single, “Masquerade of Madness” from the upcoming album The Institute, sounded quite reminiscent of The Eye. The set list included two from that 1990 underrated gem, “Behind These Walls,” and “Burn.” Hearing “Voodoo” was a surprise as was “The Lake,” the latter being released as the B-side of the “Halloween” picture disc. The other obvious fan favorites were included; “Out from the Asylum/Welcome Home/The Invisible Guests/Sleepless Nights” and “Funeral/Arrival/Mansion in Darkness.” Once again, King performed these songs as if he had just recorded them. His soaring vocals were pitch perfect every time. I have never heard King this spot on!

The stage show was incredible. The bigger stages King has been performing on have taken the King Diamond live experience to another level. The non vocal interaction between King and actress Jodi Cachia onstage can be hilarious. Livia, no longer on the side of the stage but visible high up next to Matt’s drum riser. The stage had a door in the middle that looked like the cell door of an asylum. That was the door where King was initially rolled out onstage. All of this stage set up has every King fan on edge as to where the story of the new album will take us. Until then, we enjoy the encore songs…”Burn” which leads into what is quite possibly the best metal song on the planet, “Black Horsemen!” I don’t care how many times I hear that song, I still get goosebumps….especially this performance that was dedicated to Timi Holm Hansen (R.I.P.) who just recently passed away from cancer. It was absolutely outstanding to behold.

When the last vocals of the song (and of the night) are sung,
“That’s the end of another lullaby.
“Time has come for me to say Goodnight.”
it truly was the end of the lullaby…and what a lullaby it was. As I said before, I have seen King many times and this show absolutely blew me away. If you get the chance to see King on this current tour, you will not be disappointed. I’ve been a King Diamond fan for over 35 years and I’ve never been more excited to see what comes next for King…to include a Mercyful Fate reunion for some European shows, for now. It would be nice to get some Stateside Fate shows. Whatever happens, the future is still looking quite bright for the King…..Long Live the King!
_________________
Diamhea wrote:
TrooperEd wrote:
Edit: fuck it this whole thing is bait anyway.


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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 4:20 am 
 

Enkhuizen Metal Avond, feat. Degenerate, Nov. 16th Cayen Enkhuizen

Bram has been trying to tell me for quite some time I have to return to Enkhuizen more often. He’s the ‘metal organizer’ of Cayen for some time now, but all he organized was on days I sure as hell couldn’t get there… my own birthday with Mutator in my back yard or a day when we’d be in Stockholm… Now I made sure to note November 16th in my agenda and Wanda’s, as French black metal band Dunkelnacht were to perform with two more bands. With Metal Manifesto gone, kudos to Bram and Cayen for doing this. Keep the metal spirit alive, support your underground scene whether you like it or not.

A week of extremes was followed up by going to Enkhuizen. A failed exam, 440 km drive, 14 km of lumbering between big arable machines, a cold as hell sleeping hut, again a 13 km lumber and 440 km back… we were too tired to get to Little Devil to see Khemmis and even then the week was only on Thursday… Friday meant calamity service and so Saturday was calm, calm, calm ;) We tried to contact some more friends to join, but the one was drunk, the other in divorce (…) and one playing his own gig, OK we go with just the two of us. Coming to Enkhuizen instantly gave us hugs and smiles and we’re in. Too early of course, Kees’ former gf Beau told us ^^ we couldn’t even order yet. The first band took about 20 minutes to set stage and they got about half an hour, maybe 35 minutes of own material: Faith Ablaze from Den Haag opened this night with a cross metalcore – deathcore – thrash. The band has a demo and a 7”, but didn’t bring those abroad, just stickers. Not that I really wanted to purchase anything, as after a good start my attention waned a bit… the singer had a typical metalcore scream and an amazing deep and violent grunt, but after two songs he stopped using the latter. Add a ‘clean’ singer who plays bass and double Maiden leads and you get what I mean, I guess. In vocal style I’d say this band was influenced by Chimera, Hypocrisy and R.E.M. (…true). I’d rather speak to my friends present: said Bram and Beau; Jelle and his gf, Roman (already getting inebriated ;) ), Tijmen and even Hugo (see 70.000 Tons 2014 review) with his ‘met at Graspop’-gf. Beer time! I had Jupiler 0,0, Wanda had HJ from tap and it got to her head immediately. Cheap date, right? ><

As it turned out, it was impractical AND too expensive to get Dunkelnacht over from France, so Anger Machine was booked instead. Over the years I thought this band would be duct taped to Timmetje Deathcore, but I was amazed he’s been replaced by the Gorefunest-singer Remus Stingaciu!! Actually, before all backdrops hung, I kinda hoped Anger Machine would ‘headline’ instead of Degenerate’s CD-presentation, but I’m glad that wasn’t the case. At all! Anger Machine now has more vibe, more feel and way less whine (about technicalities ><) than all the time Timmetje was around! The band no longer needs to show off their musical might, just hit the snare, the toms and the strings and off! The band also grooves a lot more, some down tuning is now pretty cool instead of ‘blah blah’ like before and the fast parts really matter now. The sound was very good too, as all instruments and vocals were much more differentiated, the band has energy and are thanked by one of the biggest pits I’ve ever seen in such a small venue 8-) Wanda was a bit tipsy already so I didn’t destroy the circle pit for once ;) Anne didn’t even enter the pit (or is that because he gained about 30 kg now? ^^ ) to protect his gf Roxanne..

Like said, Degenerate would do their CD-presentation, but a lot of momentum was put in the flight cases when Anger Machine broke off their setting. Yes, it was pretty fierce, yes I bought the CD to play to Wanda, or did I just buy it because of the huge nuclear symbol on the sticker that I got with the CD??? The audience doesn’t seem to want to leave the smoker’s booth and Jelle and Hugo already left because of other priorities. Work and mother in law, something hihihi. Singer Rens seems to have to do too much to pitch his vocals and that influenced his guitar playing negatively. I looked at Wanda and knew ‘she won’t need afpils but I do’ and guided her outside. Roman was there and he apologized 20 times for saying ‘you’re a lovely couple’, ‘you fit each other like gloves’ and more bamboozle :) We got our beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel to start easily and drove off. Degenerate wasn’t even finished :) At home we put our patches, CD and stickers aside and helped ourselves to warm water and cold HJ. Enkhuizen Metal Avond I was a success. Keep it metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 2:04 pm 
 

True Thrashfest, Nov. 22nd and 23rd, Bambi Galore and Kultur Palast, Hamburg, Germany; feat. Razor, Blood Feast, Toxik

Wanda has always looked a bit jealous at my poster of the first edition of Netherlands Deathfest. Asphyx present, she’s a huge Blasphemy fan, but also, the old thrash band from Ontario, Canada as well… Razor. As her FB is more active than my hotmail lately ;) she told me she’d love to see Razor herself. At that time she didn’t know yet the band would be in Europe this Autumn, she followed the band on FB and there she found out those words ‘True Thrash Fest, feat. Razor’; not expecting much more than an ‘ahh nice, cool band’ remark from me, I picked up my agenda and looked at my days off… yeah I can do that. Get tickets and hard copy ones of those book a hotel and figure out if Hamburg does have an environmental zone… I know it’s not that far at all, but I still refuse to put aside the beloved VW Golf Mk II DIESEL and have to know if there’s such a zone or not. Looking at several Dutch and German websites I found out the ‘entire environmental zone of Hamburg, where all diesels are banned’ is an area about two streets, not even crossing each other LOL LOL HA HA HA. So, no need for ‘vliegschaamte’, as silly goatee-wearing-goatwool-sock-adoring-smelly-clothes-dorks want to imprint on us, but plain ‘drive and have fun’ :evil: But I passed beyond my own handling… It seemed only Thursday we’d drive early, but I totally forgot I’ve booked a flight to Hamburg! Thank hotsauce.com for alerting we could check in digitally…. Another remark: I thought I booked and paid for passe-partouts, but it turned out I’d bought only Saturday tickets >< (difference: € 38 or € 50)

So, instead of driving 4,5 hours we waited for about 4 hours… half an hour at the train station, just missed it, but as we were earlier than I hastily planned it wasn’t a big deal. The rest was on Schiphol of course, gulping water we brought and being told ‘there’s no need to waste water, you can take the bottle along’ >< and through customs. Coming to Hamburg meant taking a taxi, as we both didn’t want to stress like we did in Stockholm. Turned out the silent taxi driver only turned on the meter when I looked where it was… saved us a fiver, I guess ;) Point was, with the taxi driver not having a card terminal, a fine Greek restaurant owner who simply refused ANY card and a probably sold out pre-party show we were out of cash in three remarks… We looked at each other and Wanda said ‘now it’s time for female overwhelming power to work’ and looked askingly to the organizer who ‘just give me € 36 and don’t tell anyone’. We got in, I placed Wanda near the wardrobe and got out for cash. ‘At the shop center nearby’ meant I had to search for a door, near stairs that were hardly illuminated and then the ATM itself… inside a clearly CLOSING hall… When I returned to Bambi Galore I remembered the remark Alwin Zuur made when we told him we’d go there ‘Good luck there’; I wasn’t sure if he meant it sarcastically or worried… When I got down the stairs beneath Kultur Palast I instantly thought of Death Shall Rise fest in Trier, so slender was the venue, including the bows and the rising heat and not seeing any ventilation nor windows. It got hot very quickly, thanking Astra beer to cool me down. Never mind the Hiphop Academy doing try-outs in Kultur Palast… First band to appear was Turkish Thrashfire. The singer shouted something about a friggin’drummer that didn’t show up last minute and for this show he was replaced by Excuse drummer Tatu Lybeck. Working with a replacement drummer meant the band only had time to practice two songs, so this is after De Raggende Manne probably the shortest show I’ve ever seen. De Raggende Manne once did an entire tour performing only the 6 second song ‘Neh, Da’s Niks’ and leaving the audience baffled. The songs they did play were furious thrash songs reminding me of early Assassin.

Of the band that played second I thought it was Blood Feast, as a small back drop said so. I didn’t need my pictures on Saturday to see it actually wasn’t! These guys weren’t celebrating their 35 year anniversary; they were some 20 to 25 years old and had quite an accent which wasn’t American. This band also played only two songs, but friggin’aggressive that was! I spoke to singer Burak Tavus of Thrashfire, explaining it wasn’t that the drummer didn’t show up, he simply didn’t get a visum for this show. Meanwhile, Toxik members setting up stage for a show with a band they call False Prophets. Huh? I knew a band would do a World Circus set (how many bands have a World Circus album? ^^), but that the band would hold all four present Toxik members was a total surprise to me. A total delight as well, as World Circus is a special album. Singer Ron Iglesias announced the gig ‘Yes we actually aren’t Toxik, we’re False Prophets though’ and the band hit the walls, soon gliding with all the sweat rabid headbangers pulled out of their bodies. World Circus has at least five killer songs and hearing them in their original set list was awesome!! The band, tight as fuck of course, played just as loud as my ear plugs could stop. Alan Nemtheanga was also present, banging his fist to the music ;) Josh Christian introduced ‘this edition of Toxik’ to us and made sure Jim DeMaria got the time to thank everybody he knew, including Josh, that they both survived a heart attack within an hour of each other and were able to play for us and still wíth each other. Wanda and me swung each other closer and closer to the stage and got the set list; I got Josh’ tiny guitar pick
- Heart Attack (aarrrghghhhhghgh that beginning riff!!)
- Social Overload
- Pain & Misery
- Voices
- Door to Hell
- World Circus (pit is big as the venue could hold)
- Count Your Blessings (without intro 47 Seconds of Sanity)
- False Prophets
- Haunted Earth
- Victims

An obnoxious drunk Protektor fan started a fight 4 times in a row with the same dude before he was finally thrown out (at that point he had more enemies than friends haha) and the dude that was his victim got my boerenzakdoek (hell red ;) ) to wipe his blood off… the band had not noticed as the encore ‘simply’ began: Heart Attack and Voices. Dripping in sweat and some foreign blood we got back to the merch stand we’d been walking by to get us some Blood Feast material; not knowing it wasn’t Blood Feast that played second. We talked to the Thrashfire guys and they convinced us they’re nearly the only Turkish thrash band ever so we had to support them. OK. Fine haha. Bit of afpilzen, as we’d been to an Aldi nearby for some snack, Krombacher and Baileys, tooth brush, squeaky bed, off. Breakfast would be in Konditorei Bohnenkamp, as the lovely lady of the guesthouse advised us. Still strange to have a room with a shared kitchen but the kitchen didn’t even have coffee filters…

Breakfast at Bohnenkamp is awesome, even though none of our three cards worked there (Rabo, ABN, Visa). I was happy not to have spent everything I had to get out of the mall yet, I paid… Hamburg itself is a rough city, as long as you near the harbors. Hookers, Hooters, sex shops, tourists, souvenir shops, fast food is what Reeperbahn stands for. It’s a world famous place, not only for the sex industry and sailors, but also The Beatles got their first fame there. No need for a Hard Rock Café haha. The heavy metal bars I looked up, close to Reeperbahn ( in case we couldn’t enter the pre-party after all), were still widely shut when we got to Reeperbahn. Wanda wanted to eat in Hooters and get some of our souvenirs there. OK. Find a sports bar with scarcely dressed young women and a sweet-machine with three liter of beer in it, grab a Hamburger in Hamburg and so on. It was fun and the burger was tasty. Beer was Astra, so no need for a hangover ;) I got myself a coffee mug I knew I get hilarious reactions for on the office :lol:

We got back to the guest house, changed shirts and denims and off to Kultur Palast/Bambi Galore. Bambi Galore would hold the meet-and-greet-settings, the merch was sold in the restaurant of KP, not a single hiphopper present ;) and the bands would perform in the main hall of Kultur Palast. Excuse from Finland was the first band present. Oh, now I see the same 20 to 25 year olds as yesterday! The band is tight and melodic but with a singer that was hardly audible at all. The singer that remembered that Wanda had asked for a set list yesterday, even though only two songs would be on it ^^ Here it is, hand written (thanks!!) :
- Goddess Injustice
- Blade of Antichrist
- Sworn to the Crimson Oath
- Watchtower
- Black Witch
- Visions

The band has been around for some 10 years and released a demo, some EP’s, a compilation and one full length. Typing this I hear exactly what we experienced: vile thrash, sweet melodies and a singer that could be a little louder and angrier in the mix. But pretty listenable! If you have to put a label to it, I’d say they’re highly influenced by old German thrash, Living Death, Assassin, hint of Holy Moses or Rage. Cool gig. Looking around I found Laurens, but he had no interest in beers as he’d drive home tomorrow (?) Uhm, OK.

Now it was time for the Osaka originators of True Thrash Fest: the festival was originally based in Osaka, Japan and over the ten years pretty awesome bands played there, including some here return to the plot: Razor played in Osaka before, as did Excuses, At War and Blood Feast. Tankard, Fueled by Fire, Evil Invaders, SACRIFICE, Exciter, Hirax and many more filled TTF Osaka once. That a Japanese band would be on the bill in Hamburg was not a surprise to many, as a hoard of old TTF shirts filled the VIP-area on the balcony ;) The little silence between two sentences just before the band kicked in was my ‘next year again’ :cool: and that’s a nice thing to look forward to. The Japanese band, Riverge, is somewhat of a strange band as you look at MA: they’ve released many songs several times on different names, shapes; vinyl, tape, CD, full length or EP and so on. The sound check was already energizing, but that topped when the singer Shouji Nakamura got on stage. What a lovely crazy monkey, smiling widely, jumping around like a bouncer, making gorilla stands and a dirty voice thrashers like us MUST love! The band itself plays very fast, highly energetic and lovely disharmonic thrash, Thrash, THRASH! Check out some YT: https://youtu.be/AdH1jER8-ek
Note that everybody the video had wireless systems, in Hamburg it was a mess of cables on stage that winded up more every song >< so bad that guitarist Yasuyuki Nasu tripped over and over again… nearly falling off stage. Oh sjit the drunk oaf of yesterday had again too much too drink and I thought ‘oh my, as you don’t even know there are 5 more bands today, so pissed, the fuck do you drink so much?’ Even Husky (hi!) helped to throw him out. For the stayers, here’s the set list, including typical Japanese typos ;)
- A & A!
- War Dance
- Fight Against
- Cutting Ege
- Dumned World
- Stand in Feer of Nothing
- Hungry Child
- Monster Die
- Stupid City “O”
- Faith to Nothing
- Ready to Die
- Slavish Charge
- Till I Die

Wanda simply HAD to get both types of patches ;) Now, the band Alan Nemtheanga had been travelling so far for.. At War. I don’t even know if I ever heard them, but looking at Riverge merch and seeing Thrashfire sign their own set lists in Bambi Galore, the small hall simply bled dry when At War got to stage. I soon returned to Bambi Galore, couldn’t do much with the Manowar-like poses on stage, boof vocals and simple riffing. Wanda called it ‘elevator thrash’, turned her head and was off. I wondered if we’d eat some, but no one near Kultur Palast or Bambi Galore knew anything different than BK in the mall to eat and as we’d had a pretty nice burger I chose not to walk out. Good thinking, as the real Blood Feast was setting stage! Forget everything about some band yesterday beneath a tiny BF backdrop (it wasn’t even a backdrop, more a horizontal commercial banner or so ;) ), this was friggin’killer-be-killed-and-slaughtered-again! We instantly pushed to the front of the stage not to miss anything! Guitarist Chris Scioscia already threw out some 25 guitar picks during sound check, Wanda got two, I got one; singer Chris Natalini is an animal, big, wide, tattooed, very long hair, epic beard, making faces and friends everywhere he stood/jumped/crawled and his voice is very powerful too. From the second song there’s a huge and violent pit raging, third song the first stage diver present, helped by premium guitarist Adam Tranquilli :cool: and halfway the set I had an enormous ‘Angel of Death’-feel over me! We both got set lists and more guitar picks:
- Remnants II
- Menacing Thunder
- INRI
- Hunted, Stalked and Slain
- Face Fate
- Dropping like Flies
- The Evil
- Kill for Pleasure
- The Underling (singer Chris taking my Hail of Bullets cap and showing it off proudly. Happy herrie!)
- Chopping Block Blues
- Vampire
- Blood Lust
- Off with their Heads

Hihi, Scoscia had a pink Flanger effect box with a sticker ‘full, 3, 10, 12 on it’, as reminder how his effect box was to be set. Later, as I spoke to guitarist Adam, I asked ‘where the ffkk were you in 1986? I had a friend that gave me Exodus (Adam chuckles), Hallow’s Eve (big grin) and Tyrant (yep, he nodded :) ) and I thought he had everything!’ He just kept laughing and said ‘the metal world always is bigger than you think’ and shared a great beer with me. He even pulled Chris N and drummer Adam Kieffer to us, insisting on a picture. Raise your beers, raise your horns \m/ Great, GREAT gig!!

Toxik was next. They would do a special Think This set, but as it’s not such a favorite album like World Circus, we soon left. There’s plenty of energy on stage and off, but we just kept walking. I don’t know if it was hard for us to compete with Blood Feast or something, but fact was we didn’t see more than a couple of songs and kept wandering, kept Astra’ing, kept looking for CDs and the likes. Not that we bought much more (we were nearly out of cash again, after two festival shirts, two CDs, five patches, some Hooters merch, Hamburg merch and what I’ve forgotten already) but it’s fun to watch. Wanda was pretty drained off energy too, but I had not been in one single pit at all and needed some mileage \m/ What can be better than Razor at such a moment? Razor in top form, blazing sound, blistering volume, great mix of all albums and an audience to kill for and kill with!! Take a look at my picture of the set list:
- Cross Me Fool
- Iron Hammer
- Violent Restitution
- Cut Throat
- Behind Bars
- Sucker for Punishment
- Hot Metal
- Stabbed in the Back
- Instant Death
- Electric Torture
- Gatecrasher
- Parracide
- City of Damnation
- The Pugilist
- Take this Torch
- Evil Invaders
- Speed Merchants (as ‘Bonus’ on the list, they sure as hell played it!!)

Let’s explain it simple: OK, Wanda sat on a flight case, but heard the band and had my glasses, glasses box, camera, cap, denim, new festival shirt; I bashed in from Violent Restitution on. I returned after four songs, soaking wet, for my denim, handed my dripping Happyface Brewery shirt to her, little dryer than before I bashed in again. Returned after The Pugilist, handed over my soaking wet denim, a zip of beer and the new and dry festival shirt. Returned when Evil Invaders was played for my camera, took the picture of the set list and was soaking wet again. Even the Toxik members were in or near the pit!! Blood Feast members, also sweaty, smiling like cows near corn :) This was AW.E.S.O.M.E.!!! This was THE reason to come to Hamburg; Reeperbahn or not :) That there was an after party in Bambi Galore was of no use nor interest to us, we were finished in several ways..

Off to the hotel for the final Baileys and Krombacher, but I didn’t even finish it. I was happy with the little salami left and longed for a dry shirt, a dry bed and mostly… sleep and sweet dreams. Dreams of who knows what.

Sunday was an easy day for us, breakfast at Bohnenkamp, walk to Billstedt U-train, grab Deutsche Bahn from Hauptbahnhoff and off to the airport. We didn’t need more tourism, just time together to think of metal, raging metal, trench pulling metal, killer metal!

Well meant thanks (members) or interesting reactions (guest login) via http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... rg-germany

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:25 am 
 

Legion of the Damned, Insurrection, Bolwerk Sneek, Nov. 30th

This is my twenty-fifth Legion of the Damned show! The band I’d seen with nearly all big thrash bands, some mayor festivals, all over Holland and Germany (and not too often in Belgium haha; remembering one-day-Graspop-visits ^^) and even once on my birthday (! Wãldrock 2009 pre-party) ; my personal friends were to slaughter Sneek. The band, that made me smile as well as bang my head, crush a circle pit, travel a lot and whatnot, would appear in the Bolwerk venue, and old punk hole somewhere in Friesland. I literally have everything the band ever released, all special editions, their beer, several of their shirts, hoodies and at least all different patches :lol: and the band I love to promote so much. Busy weekend or not (Municipal Waste in Drachten too) we go and bang our heads off. Harold and Maurice already know this would by my 25th anniversary show as we met the entire band in the hotel after their album release show in Turock, Essen, last January, and told them what we’d be up to ;) Bram offered us tickets, but we already had them for ourselves.

With strange mental or physical feelings, Wanda backed out last minute. I picked up Bram and drove off to Sneek. Parking was easy, but tricky: it was getting frosty and the parking lot had a ramp towards the canal… hand brake and gear needed ;) Bolwerk Sneek is no longer a dirty punk hole, but newly refurbished to a modern cultural center in the middle of the city. The new venue is nearly twice the size of Manifesto! The big hall is T-shaped, bar and merch stand/sound+lights booth in two parts of the T, lovely high stage and a brutal sound set. That brutality was not needed for the first band Marching Through Corpses, as they play boring deathcore, stand still performance and a dick for guitars (Belinda refuses to be near him ><). The lights killed off the rest of the performance. Orange soda time with John, John, Johnny, Floris and Hedwig. Good to see you all, but don’t talk Friesian to me JUST because I’m in Friesland ^^

Douwe of Insurrection and me go back a long time. I’ve seen several of his previous bands and we talk every time we meet. The band had been busy with new merch (lovely pink patches, I bought one for Wanda’s Dutch Denim), a new merch booth (guitar case with moving pictures, lovely lights and a headset for listening to, neatly made ;) ) and new music! Bram, as new metal organizer for Cayen, made contact too. Pity the band started with a slightly disappointing overall sound, as part by part only one guitar was heard. Moving closer to the stage improved the sound experience ;) The grooves, blasts, breaks and (twin) solos sound sleeker than before, as if the band practiced hard. Not just practice, but also new songs slay! Heavy, groovy, sensitive, moshable, the band has it all! Very good gig! Add that the DJ was ‘all eighties thrash’ made us enjoy Death and Insanity, Slaves of Pain, We Have Arrived, After the Holocaust, Extreme Aggression and At Dawn they Sleep \m/ We had a great time! I bought Wanda a shirt of the new album, as if she did join us ;) Bram got me a black on black Legion of the Damned pin, two more Insurrection patches and a whale like smile he didn’t mind MTC did not bring any merch HA HA. During the Legion sound check I spoke to Douwe and guitarist Marten about the sound and the songs, but we had to shout: Legion of the Damned was checking sound as if they wanted all Friesland to know they’re BACK!

My anniversary Legion of the Damned show started with a thundering intro, not too much lights and five smiles like killer whales near a seal colony. The sound was maybe a bit higher pitched than I’m used to, but very, very much enjoyable! I know the music so well I hardly needed the set list I got from Harold (THANK YOU)
- Warhounds of Hades
- Sons of the Jackal (Bram warming up headbanging)
- Palace of Sin
- Mountain Wolves Under a Crescent Moon (bro time with Harold :) )
- Bleed For Me
- Werewolf Corpse (little technical shebab for Erik)
- Slaves of the Shadow Realm (‘Who’s got it? Yeah, herrieman has him, but “you” just got the damned thing before the show’ :lol:) )
- The Widow’s Breed (‘We finally play in Sneek again, 1997 was the last time with Sinister ;)
- One of the coolest intros of all thrash metal: Sermon of Sacrilege
- Pray and Suffer (Bram in full helicopter swing :cool: )
- Doom Priest (bro moment with Maurice :) )
- instrumental part because Maurice’s mic is going haywire, twin solo as if they’re Maiden fans? ;)
- Taste of the Whip
- Dark Coronation
- Legion of the Damned
What a killer band, killer set list, killer audience, amazing sound (-set), loud as a Tirpitz under fire, pretty violent pit behind us, wind mill hairs, I dislocated my right shoulder fistbanging so hard. I had a headache because of the lights during (and because of) MTC; I could not bang my head as I wished. Filled our pockets with killer promo material, emptied our wallets, sweaty heads and sore arms we got back to the car. No problem parking out, but the dense fog made me miss not one but several gas stations… Coming to Enkhuizen I finally spotted my diesel level… but as it was near 2 PM all gas stations were closed and all automated pay points were shut down too. I drove through 4 gas stations (…), but no diesel for my beloved VW Golf Mk II… I knew parking is not allowed on Streekweg nor Dr. Nuijensstraat I had to get to Westwoud to park in a small parking haven… and had to walk home. I ditched everything heavy in the car (Bifi, water, apple juice) but brought the BramBram and new car stereo home. Exhausted, but as a damned legionnaire I got home. Diesel is of Saturday importance. Metal is of everyday importance. Legion of the Damned was important for over 35 times to me (25 live shows, 24 great ones; meeting them on different days, getting my greedy fingers on those special editions too hihi). Metal.

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2019 10:34 am 
 

Municipal Waste Winter Tour 2019, Iduna Drachten, Dec. 1st

If you need a party, call Ryan Waste & Co. That sorta sums up what I think of Municipal Waste, Cannabis Corpse, Iron Reagan and BAT. Professional musicians, that never fail to have a party on stage, these bands are tight live and their records are solid. Ryan Waste is actually THE reason I want to go to the next Napalm Death Campaign for Musical Destruction, as I’ve haven’t seen BAT yet. Off stage he’s a cool dude, sometimes even quiet. But not on this Waste Winter tour, as they bring their friends of Toxic Holocaust, Skeletal Remains and Enforcer to Europe. We’re in for a party, I’d say ‘as usual’, as I haven’t seen a bad Waste, Corpse or even Toxic Holocaust show yet. As a thank you for fitting my new car stereo, I got Tom a ticket and a ride. At first I’d thought to bring my brother Alex, but as it’s a Sunday I’d rather drive home myself.

A ride or a drive, that was the beginning of this Sunday event. I had to abandon my beloved but totally empty VW Golf Mk II diesel at the edge of my village as I’d ran out of diesel last night. I knew I had a jerrycan in my car, I just needed to get there. OK. Bike to my car, get my jar, bike to gas station, get a gallon of diesel and try to start. Nothing. Get another gallon, try to start. Even less, as I drained my battery to the point of exhaustion. I needed help and I needed it fast, after a short night we’d be in Drachten at 3 AM. But Westwoud, often called sleepy or even boring, can be beautiful too. I took my charger cables to the nearest farm house and he was eager to help. He even recognized me by saying ‘aren’t you a brother of Marleen? I had a crush on her in my school days’ :) I thanked him about 27 times before heading home, getting the tank full and picking up Wanda. So lovely to see the diesel flowing from filter to valve :cool: Wanda decided to come to this show instead of the Legion of the Damned gig and she’s much better today. Of Belinda I knew she’d be there, doing lights for one of her favorite bands ever and I think it was her that stated ‘killer line up, maybe a local band to start. Eat with Municipal Waste!!’ ;)

Coming to Iduna gave us a hint of Friesland again, as Geert thought Westfriesians had no deals to be made in Drachten (?) and skipped us in the line; haven’t seen him all night but met his daughters. I spotted Joel Grind behind the merch table and got my picture. He was pleasantly surprised by my Westfriesian Pit Crew shirt, as it bears Duff’s Brooklyn, Bolt Thrower and a beer brand (HJ of course) \m/ Joel got the full grind, showing off the D.R.I. backpatch as I know he’s well into punk, hardcore and crossover. I got myself some TH patches (way more expensive than I thought) and a guitar pick. The first band wasn’t a local at all, it was Skeletal Remains. The California death heads got in full swing, even though the venue wasn’t half full yet. What the latecomers missed, is a party of old school American death metal, blunt, brutal, well balanced and referring to Vader, Morbid Angel and Malevolent Creation. Tom also noticed that Malevolent Creation vibe, as he once gave me the Manifestation DVD after a Bolt Thrower gig. He does remember certain bands after all ;) This was a good gig. Wanda thought she also knew the band (-name?) but can’t have seen them… she was transported out of the ambulance to the B&B, by me, during the SR show on Stonehenge last July. Now there was no need to dehydrate as Enforcer got to stage. The band is clearly NOT on the right tour, as most of the thrashers, crossovers, hardcore kids and smokers head outside during these 40 minutes. We decided ‘WASP on a bad day’, ‘Mötley Crüe sober’ or ‘Rob Halford’s balls in a blender’ and got out also. Even worse ‘Leuk dat Frans Bouwer er ook is’ ><

Hey, good, there’s a Vietnamese snack stand! I had asked Tom in the car whether he’d eaten anything, he responded ‘only a single bun this morning’ so Wanda got us all Thai chicken rolls (or Laotian, or Indian, who am I to know the difference?’ ;) ) and bakpao buns. We got back into the hall and noticed Enforcer hadn’t finished ‘kut wat spelen ze lang’ HA HA. Strangely my Enforcer patch disappears off my ‘Mercyful Fate/Deserted Fear’-denim ;) to be replaced by a Skeletal Remains patch. I had given my TH patches to Wanda (‘for the thrash denim’) and Belinda (‘such a Waste fan must have SOME Toxic Holocaust on her denim’) and got a SR one as thank you. In the meantime Wanda got me the new MW EP The Last Rager, playing now. Lovely, fast, typical Waste material.

The TH sound check was the loudest part of the entire day. So. I said it. Joel and his two band mates come to kill. Nothing more, nothing less. But it was a great kill to witness. When Nuke the Cross was finished, the first bodies were to be picked up from the floor. Second song in, huge circle pit that lasted between songs and beyond. In the Name of Science was renamed In the Name of Crowd Surf. ‘Silence’… busted ankles are no problem tonight, so Tom goes. Another World, if Tom goes, I go too. I Am Disease, mosh to survive. Acid Fuzz, like a gold fish in a green toxic environment, add blender please. New World Beyond: swipe sweat and return. Awaken the Serpent, have to move snakelike to avoid being hit again. Bitch: don’t nag about no set list, there is none HA HA HA. Name a few other songs and you can fill the hour easily. Great gig, loud as ukfc, sharp but still dirty. Everybody present knows Joel is a huge fan of Bathory, Discharge, Venom, GBH and Motörhead so there you have the feel of the music as well. We loved it to bits, as did the rabid bangers, partying drinkers, hardhitters, crowd surfers and the rest.

What can I say about my eleventh Municipal Waste gig? Moshkinstein, Wolfenmosh, Fortmosh, Moshcreed, GTMosh, Beer Mosh, I don’t give a flying kkff about gaming but this was a party as if it was orchestrated for Nintendo, Atari and the likes. From first riff on, pour in a beer like a cell battery and it was mosh, mosh, mosh, beer, beer, dive, dive. Even Tom got airborne, T-shirt in pants, undershirt bloody, but smiling like an executioner watching his new guillotine. Here’s the set list Wanda scraped off the stage:
- Unleash the Bastards
- Mind Eraser
- You're Cut Off
- The Thrashin' of the Christ/ Poison the Preacher
- Shrednecks
- Beer Pressure
- Thrashing's My Business... And Business Is Good
- Wave of Death
- Headbanger Face Rip / Intro / Slime & Punishment
- Breathe Grease
- Wrong Answer
- Under the Waste Command
- Sadistic Magician (no magician to be seen now, but a kid about 8 years old on stage, having the time of his life and being hailed by band + crew)
- Think Fast
- Substitute Creature (ancient MW song, Ryan without guitar now)
- Bangover
- Born to Party
- instrumental break, not on the set list
- The Art of Partying (also not on list)
We stood first row and stayed there, hearing a band in top form, great sound, being witness to a great pit, a hundred attempts to dive, some doing it several times, being cheered and encouraged by the band, witty faces by the crew and band, some being helped on stage by Tony or Phil, some staying too long and being kicked off by Ryan or Nick. It was a lovely mess on stage, off and in front of. The pit was bigger than the space anticipated, around the sound table they went and as I’ve seen several standing on the merch table and bar, trying to dive off. Another unforgettable Municipal Waste show has happened. Who was forgettable though? A girl nagging to me she wanted the set list Dave Witte personally handed to me. Uhm, what, you can have the one Wanda tore off. No, no, I want yours, as it’s from my home town. Uhm, OK, I said you can get the other, it’s from this show in this town too! No, I want… bye bye autist! I gave the torn set list to Alex Mutator, who was greatly surprised I got him a set list until I explained about the nagging autist girl. He just smiled and told me Mutator is in writing mode now, not gigging at all, just focus on new material. Cool I wait.

Good to see all bands interact, having a great Sunday afternoon and early evening. It wasn’t even 8:30 when we saw at least three bands talking with fans and each other about a great night on a great tour. Belinda told us ‘shhh, don’t show I’ve got you a poster’ ^^ and we moved out. The Thai was still serving! But as I don’t often frequent the same food twice a day, we got to a boring Macca and were hailed by some 20 metalheads, most of them drunk and sweaty, eating food everybody tells themselves not to order again :) I got the beloved VW to purr in seconds (probably do need new glowers again) and drove off home. In about 70 minutes of 130 km an hour steering I delivered the sleeping Tom to his beloved Ellen and got myself the last of the now 25 year old Oban single malt to my burning throat as afpils. That bottle has survived 8 years from Bloodstock to The Waste! I got to bed with a hedgehog under my scalp, too much energy to sleep. Got to work about 90 minutes later than I planned, but I managed. Still thinking of a flying 8-year old, a sick grin on both Joel’s as Tony’s face when the kid flew and landed softly. He landed most smooth of all attempts, sure as hell hahaha. Killer day, three killer bands and one incredibly bad one. Kudos. Diesel. Party. Beer. Orange Soda. Thai. Thrash. Crossover. Metal.

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2019 6:19 am 
 

Sacred Reich - Awakening tour, Gebr.deNobel, Leiden, Dec.6th

In july I got tickets for Sacred Reich in GebrDeNobel, Dec. 6th; as the Ruhrpott MM is really a no-go this year :( I'd rather have two cool bands than two days of shitty bands combined... Queenswimps, Battle Wimps, Wimpchapel; only OK bands there are Graceless, Entombed AD, Necrophobic and Debauchery. OK the line up isn't full yet but we won't go to Oberhausen this year. But, having met the entire band (OK in a signing session ;) ) on Alcatraz, heightened our spirits for this show. Book a nice hotel or stay at Jeroen’s again, we’ll see. I should not forget to wear my Dutch Denim again, see if Dave will remember :lol: and bring my last Forever Young consumption coins, as that festival was to host Phil & Co. on the 1991 edition \m/ No Phil then, the band was there, but the singer/bass player was in the Hoorn hospital with sore vocal chords.

Jeroen would probably not there, so I booked a hotel in the region. But my day started as an illegal alien, as I needed my government log in and it said ‘you can’t log on to this site as you’re no longer resident of the Netherlands!’ :-/ Beloved VW Golf Mk II, train, walk, eat, thrash. OK I can do that ;) illegal or not ;) In the train the conductor told us we’d be cheaper off with a combined tickets, no thanks to NS for telling that after refilling Wanda’s card with about € 100 >< The hotel was only a five minute walk from the station and Gebr.DeNobel is only a 10 minute walk from there ;) We ate at Hudson’s, but the too young waitresses didn’t listen at all and charged double? Bye bye tip :evil: Coming to Gebr.DeNobel was fun too, as Phil was very busy organizing and reorganizing his merch stall :) He clearly had a good time, he spoke to everybody present. No Dave yet, coins still in my pocket ;) I had totally forgotten which band would be support act, but as half the merch stand was filled with Night Demon stuff I had an idea who ;) Soon sharing a beer with Amsterdam Johnny and Ami, Night Demon did start. Wanda liked the band more than I did, but it’s clear the band is tight. I kept thinking of Diamond Head, she referred to Angel Witch. I’d rather have Angel Witch, but so be it. The band did play some songs I know, like Curse of the Damned, Screams in the Night (huh? Second time? Third?? Nah, I was mistaken ;) This song is one hundred per cent Diamon Head rip off) and The Chalice, with ‘grim reaper with chalice’. End the show with Darkness Remains and Radar Love and I’m wandering again. Darkness Remains has a strong Maiden feel I’m totally not into tonight. Spoke to Phil for a while, explaining about the coins ;) and saw Claudia and Ursula happy with the Night Demon pick they obtained.

I met Arnold, an old friend of my secondary agricultural school and Wanda lost it? Uhm, I’m not leaving, I walk… sorry to say, but this was unnecessary to me. Sacred Reich had already started when we got to the upper balcony...During the song Awakening I grabbed her tightly to express my love, not my desire to leave… I met Dave and Reem again and asked Dave if he’d be able to make a picture of the set list. He was:
- Divide & Conquer
- The American Way
- Manifest
- One Nation (lovely swirl pit :) )
- Love / Hate
- Free (with a long and nearly emotional speech by Phil)
- Crimes Against Humanity
- Who’s to Blame
- Ignorance (from top balcony I had to rush down to PIT PITT PITTT!!)
- Salvation (what a letdown after the Ignorance mosh ><)
- Independent (hit the pit again, again from the balcony two stairs down)
- Killing Machine (pile up the bodies for the Killing!)
- Death Squad
- Surf Nicaragua (hall exploding with joy and of course, an enormous pit)
Here is a band playing with smiles like they just discovered ice cream for the first time, topped with thrashy madness, a hell of a sound, sharp as a Mustang in first gear and plain FUN! I’ve said it before, some people go to a show mere for the grins on this stage! When the show was over Reem had his pick, the set list was signed when the last tune of Nicaragua was still trembling a bit. I didn’t get it, shwoah. I had my bro moment with Wiley and Dave (including exchange of the Forever Young coin :) ) and happy we got to the wardrobe and swerved off into Leiden. Uhm, that was only a ten minute walk, no need for afpilzen (that would have meant my third brand of beer and no, that’s not my ideal to start the rest of the weekend >< ) and off to the sweet bed, clean sheets and shiny bathroom ;) We decided to leave the bags at the hotel for another tourist trip into town, bringing home Pestilence – Reflections of the Mind, two Paul Simon CDs, one Barrelhouse compilation (finally! One of the best Dutch blues bands ever!), the signed Sacred Reich – Awakening, a hand full of magnets and patches (including at least one for Missy, hush ;) ). The chocolate breakfast was awesome, but had terrible coffee; but Leiden entertained us again. Train home, apple lunch, good coffee, Surf Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:52 am 
 

Eindhoven Metal Meeting MMXIX, feat. Sodom, Graceless, Bodyfarm, Dec 11th – 14th. Headliners: Dødheimsgard (pre-party), Paradise Lost / Candlemass / Taake

Typing this I had to count. OK, you know I’ve visited every friggin’EMM day since 2009, but how many days were that? Uhm, 2009 was one day, then a few times two days and now with pre-parties there were 26 days of EMM in De Effenaar. I might have missed an afterparty in The Jack or Dynamo, but all 26 days I was present. That’s nearly a month of Eindhoven Metal Meeting ;) Now we already have tickets for the 2020 edition, that will bring the count to 29. Go for it \m/ I’ve met and made so many friends there, it’s amazing: Brabanders, Limburgers, Belgians, Friesians, Ostfriezen, Ruhrpotters, Americans, Swedes, Brits, Norwegians and Westfriesians haha. Wanda agrees, there wasn’t a weekend ever before she’d given so many hugs ;) . I also brought family and this edition of EMM began with my brother Alex and a box of fried Gadus marlangus. It wasn’t necessary for me to work anymore (topped my productivity from 280 approved to 440 executed \m/ ) and have nearly 100 worked hours too much. I’m free to go now. Pff. Finally rest, beers, friends and metal again; friendly people in train, in hotel and friends on the way to Effenaar: the pre-party of Thursday would bring mostly black metal. First person near Effenaar I met was organizer Roman, who had to tell us blushingly he’d forgotten to put the Sodom logo on the shirt >< Did he? Yeah, before a band played I’d seen the ‘problem’ haha and instantly had an idea to cover the Taake logo: make it Wodos. Amazing.

That first band of the pre-party was Matterhorn. No need for silly jokes about St.Bernhard hounds with a little barrel of alcohol, but fierce, fast blackened death metal, highly variated in songs, sometime blunt, sometimes technical… think of a cross Pro-Pain (!), Grave, Kyuss and Deströyer 666. Not bad for starters, not bad at all! Wanda bought a CD and a patch, as she’d been to Switzerland twice and loved how the mountain Matterhorn is visualized in the band logo. Second band tonight was Blaze of Perdition from Poland. The band plays fast black metal with polyphonic vocals Wanda called technical black, so be it. Hey, Stephan is here too and he’s brought more friends ;) Beertime! Especially as Bölzer was up next and their hyper ambient and slow intro, performing in a haze of smoke, you couldn’t even see if the band consisted of two or more members >< I thought of Pink Floys ‘swimming in a fish bowl’, but now in iced carbon dioxide smoke instead of weed… Headliner Dødheimsgard (friggin’band name >< ) is a band Wanda has a lot of material from, both their black metal early days and their more ambient latter stuff. As she didn’t recognize anything but the band logo, we made it a short gig. We’d have two more long and heavy days in front of us. Funny thing was, walking to Sandton (of course ;) ) we did not see any voetbal fans, but at least on abandoned Rosenborg BK scarf and some Puhsvuh stickers torn off. Ceefax: 4-0! Afgedroogd! I thought ‘oh, they’re out of the Europa League even before this night started, nice and sporty fans’ but it turned out my cluppie Feyenoord is done in Europe too, after a thriller against Glasgow Rangers (3-2 loss) and Celtic Glasgow is head boy in their poule \m/ See at home if Feyenoord is up against Puhsvuh again… game begins at 14:30…

What to do on a long day, when bands appear at the end of the afternoon in Eindhoven? Visit the DAF museum with your loved one(s)! Great to see those cars, trucks, Formula One stuff, rally cars, concept cars, trailers, even for wounded people with a bike nearby? Yeah, the refurbished museum is cool to walk through. Coming back to the hotel, I made contact with Sylvia and Jürgen, as they’d brought the bottle of Pfeffie that survived three festivals :) We agreed to meet in Crown Inn Hotel but met Sharon instead, bringing good news, booze news and personal loss… our condolences to Kim Mie and her kids… Quickly to the hotel, we’d meet at the bar of the small hall. We also met Big Thomas and he laughed his head off with the news of the missing Sodom logo. Not that he believed me, he’d talk to his buddy Husky about it and have a bet with me about that logo. Coming in, I found a huge smile and a huge beer waiting for me. Wanda’s pal Dennis was there too, we might send him the Merciless- and Barzabel-stuff that’s double now [and unused ><] First band in the main hall was The Committee, the anonymous international black metal band… uhm I wanna see some expression in a gig, if not I’d rather have a CD than an annoying puff metal band… better have a beer with the Carnation guys, great to see you again! We were waiting for some fire, some interaction, some bluntness, some heavy stuff, some smiles if you like and what was up in the small hall: ACROSTICHON!!! Thaaaa abyss deep growl, those intense smiles, that extremely heavy sound and they hail from my own country! I’d seen the band only once (1996 Dutch Metal Night) and had met Corinne several times. Simply a band to fall in love with! Wanda cheered so loud she got the set list and a bunch of hugs, thanking over and bovver ;)
- Immolation of the Agnostic
- Snapshot
- Walker of Worlds (with or without L? ;) the set list says Words, the CD Worlds ^^)
- Dehumanized
- Zombies
- Lost Remembrance
- Relics
Wanda freaked out so much she had to run to the merch stand and get her greedy fingers on about a kilogram of patches, a shirt and did she get Return to Killburg? Red, black, white, green, yeah, it’s a cool bunch. We’d stay around the small hall, as Wanda wasn’t in for Alcest (much) and Bodyfarm was to destroy the 300 people present. Hilarity before, as the backdrop was hung upside down and the smoke machine was already working… Start another Eindhoven Full Massacre? Yeah!! I think the set list says enough to know I totally freaked out:
- Manhunt
- Angelreaper
- Woods of Dismay
- Well of Decay
- Vortex of Terror (couldn’t help it, became emotional)
- The Last Crusade (for Thomas \m/ )
- The Dark Age
- Storming Revolution
- Unbroken
- Slaves of War
So far Bodyfarm was THE band of the festival, not only for me, but also for Wanda and about 250 others. Full tent for a full blown killer band with great set list. Let the description of Bloodbath over to Daniel, we were waiting for Nocturnal Breed and again, we weren’t the only ones who made that choice. The very cool and aggressive thrash sounded like a white rhino near a bloody red one ^^ good thinking to get behind eBay and order that NB stuff ^^ Time for some cool air outside, meeting a happy Henri Sattler, who just was about to release their new material \m/ Also, I heard from one of the MEF organizers early birds for EMM 2020 were on sale and they’re running out fast! So, grinning to Roman again, I got the last ones! By the time I got to the office counter he said the presale on internet was already shut down! We paid € 75 each, normal festival tix can be purchased via www.eindhovenmetalmeeting.com for € 95.

The band that didn’t make it to the shirt made the big hall tremble. Wanda next to the pit, holding my cap, camera and glasses and bye bye! Hit, mow, bash, kill. Sodom was in the Lighttown present again and wanted to be heard! Loud, obnoxious, filthy but also sharp as the experienced band can be. Checking recent set lists got me a hint of this one, but I’m not too sure as my paper and pen were also at Wanda’s ^^ Angelripper, Blackfire, Husky and York were friggin’into Eindhoven, into hell and fire, water only in per cents present ^^ and a friggin’heavy pit was their reward. They had an hour and hit that hour full speed on, only a little time for joking and kidding, the rest was pure Teutonic Thrash Mayhem. Now I’m certain I’m gonna add Wodos to my EMM 2019 shirt \m/ I was so wet I got Wanda’s brand new Acrostichon shirt and salted that one too ;) . Midfest conclusion: Bölzer OK music sad show, Nocturnal Breed cool, Bodyfarm and Acrostichon as Dutch stakeholders and Sodom giving everything. We’d had enough, no Kampfar, The Vision Bleak nor Runes of Beverast and certainly no Burning Witches, as the band got cancelled just a whiff before they’d play. Bye bye Sonia? ;) Nightcap, pillow, gone.

We were happy we finally got to see the Sandton breakfast, as we wanted ‘something else than HEMA breakfast ;) ‘ so Thursday and Friday we got snert and rye bread + bacon ;) to be followed by our December 14- and Eindhoven-rituals: Leonard, Peter and Clemens. Coffee, candles, tears and friendship combined. Wanda had nearly lost her wrist band and needed a new one. Pay another € 50? For a fluffy piece of plastic like this? Uhm, no. An elastic hair band will have to do >< No pitting for Wanda this weekend? Hihi, it wasn’t that bad. Bütcher got the short treatment, as the small hall was way too full to see the band. OK thrash band by bloody members, I haven’t seen much more. 1914 in the big hall was easily forgotten as Graceless would fill the small hall some five minutes… Got to first row, bro time was plenty present and Graceless was viewed by the entire Dutch metal scene: Nice to see members of Izegrim, Bodyfarm, Metal Experience Fest, Into the Grave, Doc’s Metal Cruise, Persistence, Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Asphyx and Bloodmoon heard and trembled to these songs (thank you Remco and Jasper for set list and plectrum)
- We Will Be Gods
- Ruins of Desolation (off the split with Grond)
- Legions of the Fallen
- Lock Stock
- Shadowlands
- Die on Demand
- Dragons
- Iron Tears
Whoah, what a volume, what a sound, what a stamina! I think this band can get big, if they’re a bit lucky with the record deal or an occasional tour with another killer band… Wanda gave the set list to Sylvia and I gave the plectrum to Jürgen as a thank you for the Pfeffie ^^ Pictures will be sent to Eupen ;) We didn’t even have time to get to main hall for Spectral Voices, as it was soooo cozy after the Graceless show ;) Darkfall (the Austrian one, some twenty minutes of hugging later) had blistering lights in the sound check, that was a bummer after a nice (nearly) monochromatic set Graceless had… I like their music but we wanted some merch hunt (and share that hihihi). Bodyfarm-, Acrostichon- and Graceless- material was given away in numbers :cool:

What followed in the big hall could have been my attempt to lure Tom to EMM’19, but M.O.D. made a bit of a fool of themselves. Oh my.. has Milano deteriorated since 1999 or what? Lumpy, intoxicated, knotted beard, spitting more than he’d sweat and a totally predictable set list, add that a pit only consisted of knee-high-flying idiots and a bad sound… Aren’t You Hungry, Get a Real Job, Douche Crew, Milano Mosh and a new and simplistic Fight-Fight-Fight shoutout… uhm no. Don't even going to mention this to Tom. Nice to hear Milano thinks he’s the biggest MF in the world, we got out and spotted a few seconds of Hour of Penance in a way too full small hall… We were talking to our Aurich buddies Jens and Lukas (see http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... farm-april ) and I heard my favorite doom song ever: My Charcoal Heart by Officium Triste. So, for a glimpse and two pictures, I wormed myself into the small hall, got beers for my German friends and returned. It sounded great, atmosphere was plenty available too.

But three days of beer, Malibu, metal, big breakfasts and small bites began to take its toll on us. I looked at the schedule and saw Dying Fetus, Haemorrhage and Candlemass before some interesting (to both of us) would happen Mork Gryning in small hall and Paradise Lost in the main one. Wanda stood lopsided to a door post, I nearly closed my eyes there. We’re not waiting for Rectal Smegma, as Ineke and Sharon would do. No. We decided to rip the Heidelberg Deathfest 2020 poster off the wall, not buy a € 5 EMM2019 one ^^ and got outside. I could use one afpils on one condition: food! Greasy and salty, if possible: yeah, spare ribs! The Stratumseind wasn’t so obnoxiously full as Friday, when we didn’t even WANT to mix with the mix guzzlers, nitrous gas inhaling fools and disappointed voetbal fans… typing this I know Berghuis was the main man of the game with three goals, Bergwijn CERTAINLY wasn’t (yellow card out of frustration) and Van Bommel is no longer head coach of Puhsvuh after two victories in 12 games (all competetions). The Rosenborg BK scarf needs a sleek place as a reminder hahahahaha.

So, breakfast was awesome again and we’ve survived probably the shortest EMM for us. On the road to the station we met Jens (Aurich) and in the train Lukas (how coincidental, also Aurich), numbers exchanged. What we didn’t expect was a group of 6 or 8 totally obnoxious, loud, vile looking female hiphoppers that needed a course in social behavior as they played friggin’R. Killyourselfelly fucking loud AND had a great chat with the lovely Sterre. Interesting to both her and Wanda ;) and me, as it was her very first festival ever (and that on the age of 21) and my 11th EMM out of some 200 festivals halfway the planet HA HA HA. More numbers exchanged. We meet again, Sterre, Lukas, Jens, Jürgen, Sylvia, Stephan, Stefan, Paul, Theo, Alex, Alex, Marloes, Jeroen, Henri, Remco, Jasper, Jasper, Sander, Rhea, Alwin, Alwin, Marc, Sharon, Ineke, Inken, Marie, Kate and those 2,500 others present! Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:21 am 
 

At the Gates, Deserted Fear in 013, Dec. 20th

After being misled about Deserted Fear on Alcatraz last August, at least I wanted some revenge. For me, for the band, for fans, for death metal. There wasn’t that much death metal on Alcatraz anyway. Wanda agreed, even if she isn’t such a big DF fan like me. She loves their debut My Empire, that’s for sure. As they’d play with At the Gates in 013, first thing I did after Alcatraz was app Jordy, if he’d like to go with us. Not as a hint to a free night in Tilburg, but just to see our friends again. I kinda knew Jordy would like At the Gates, I’d bring Deserted Fear into his house haha. Of course, he’s a volunteer to 013 and he might get in for free; at least two of his friends would be present. Het Wapen van Tilburg booked, train planned, melodeath!! But without printed tickets this time, I’d forgotten to print them at my office… I haven’t had a working printer in years and years. Wanda pissed off, as it gave her stress, but no worries. I don’t think Jupiter Stage of 013 would be that full >< and brought my office iKolereding to be sure…

We had all the time in the world, so we ate decently at Het Wapen, only to be annoyed by some fraternity balls having a loud reunion. HJ for me, Lellebel for Wanda ;) First people we ran into were… Jordy and Kimberly :) We also met Laurens and Dikke Pim, in for a party! We got to second row easily (some 50 people present) and… instant bro time with Fabian of Deserted Fear :cool: The band had brought their full settings, meaning colored smoke machines, killer banners and backdrop and a great sound! What Fabian’s set list said is:
- Battalion D’Amour
- Kingdom (‘Bon soir! Nu som of d’Allemanie’ Clearly, that’s a French set list HA HA HA. Nicely phonetic :) )
- Wrath
- Well Cum
- Facebook
- Final
- Carnarsch
- Bury your Fat

Mahne wanted to express something in our native language, but clearly he ffkked up as he’s in The Netherlands today HA HA HA. Fabian was more awake and thanked us all for showing up for the fifth Dutch gig Deserted Fear ever did. Of course, this is the official set list:
- Battalion of Insanities
- Kingdom of Worms (first row now, instant bro time)
- Wrath on Your Wound (Fabian’s guitars might be a bit louder in the mix)
- Welcome to Reality (little pit behind us)
- Face our Destiny
- The Final Chapter
- The Carnage (thanking us, the venue filled up nicely by now)
- Bury Your Dead (a bit shorter than I expected, but I don’t complain)

We rushed to the merch stand to meet the guys, but were only lucky after Nifelheim got off stage ;) . I bought Wanda a tour shirt and Jordy a beanie, but he only wanted it packed and on his birthday. OK, now we both hope these coming three weeks aren’t blistering cold :lol: So, Nifelheim. A band to look closely at, said both Wannes G. and Pim B. ;) I know, guys, it’s not like I’ve never been to Arnhem Metal Meeting 2007 nor NDF hahaha. Nifelheim brought an instant smile to Wanda’s face and I knew I was going to like it too. Jelmer and Dikke Pim had started a Tilburgian Nifelheim bingo, with all words The Heavy Metal Twins would utter: AAAAAARRRGGGHHH, Devil, Evil, Hell, Blasphemy, Reaper; anyone who had the first row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) full would get a pint from Jelmer. Uhm, why didn’t you bring in some more brochures for that, I wanted to join too HA HA HA. After some five songs Wanda signaled (it was pretty loud up front) she’d gladly take my cap, glasses and off I was. I later made a picture of the set list:
- Infernal Flame of Destruction
- Unholy Death
- From Hell’s vast Plains
- Evil Blasphemies (‘Binggggooo!’ I heard jelling :) there goes my free pint ;) )
- Burning Warpath
- Bestial Rights
- Storm of the Reaper
- Sodomizer
- Bestial Avenger
- Possessed by Evil (Satan Sacrifice crossed out)
- The Final Slaughter

This is a band that looks somewhat ridiculous, with more spikes than hairs and glam-like legs to be seen, but they stand their ground, play way better than the chaos you’d expect and look evil enough to be real black metal to me. Blackened thrash is aggressive and energizing music and Nifelheim plays it with fire. One of the best bands in the genre. Nuff said.

Of course, this led to a second visit to the merch stand, had my chat with Mahne and Fabian (mostly about Alcatraz and PartySan) and talked to the Nifelheim/At the Gates merch man. ‘I usually work for Meshuggah’, he said “I hate that band”, I said, nice conversation, neh? :) At the Gates opened the show with The Muppet Show theme and some new material I’m not familiar with, found the new album dull, so off YT. Looking around, the venue DID fill up, free tickets for volunteers or not. There was some cabaret in the big hall at the same time, but apart from my hotel owner nobody cared about them ;) We had enough to talk about, known song played or not, we had a good time during At the Gates; Slaughter of the Soul early in the set, the rest quite new stuff. OK, we head out early, afpils at the hotel was short due to the last round already had called (?). Fine. We had a great Deserted Fear gig and a great Nifelheim one and we didn’t come for At the Gates in the first place. Seen that, done that, but metal. The breakfast was a bit of a rush, as the train to Den Bosch was already present when we needed the ‘Joint travel shortcut’ and had 10 minutes in Den Bosch instead of 29… We got home around midday and I did my Sunday routine: shave, laundry, voetbal, Chinese, even though it’s Saturday ;) Battalions of Metal! Possessed by Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Dec 31, 2019 11:58 am 
 

Teutonic Thrash Assault, feat. Sodom, Holy Moses; Turbinenhalle Oberhausen, Dec. 30th

I don’t mind doing one-off days of calamity service at work, but entire weeks make me shift my brain too much and can freak me out. One-off days are doable, but why the hell did I have to be planned calamity service between Christmas and New Year? I never work those days, in my previous job I just had a little too much phone calls on days that were important to me… I think of Dec. 31st 1999, when I had to wait until 4 PM to be given green light to go home from Itzehoe (between Hamburg and Wacken!). At the turning of a millennium you want to be with loved ones, right? I clearly remember that Friday, waiting for ‘nothing special’, then get the welcome ‘go’ and the rush to get home… Normally it’d be a five hour drive, but now I hated my little Mitsubishi Colt for not driving faster than 170 km an hour… fuck road work, fuck cameras, fuck the gasoline, drive. I made it to my father in law’s house in 270 minutes and asked ‘get me a double whiskey, so I know for sure I don’t have to drive back again’ >< On another date I had to return on Boxing Day, ‘as you’re the only one available now’. So, I quit doing work on call appeal a long time ago; ever since 2000 I’ve never worked between December 24th and January 2nd. This year I forgot to those plan days off and yeah, there you have it: calamity service ‘as you’re the only one available now’. Aarrggghhh. I made up an anniversary gift ‘I got from Wanda’ and shifted those days with a colleague with different priorities near Christmas. Thanks Alexander! Now I had my hands free to see Assassin for the first time, as Wanda and me have been picking up ancient German thrash bands for quite some time now. Bring in a band I’ve seen on my first Dynamo Open Air (Holy Moses) and the Teutonic Thrash Sodomizers and it’s great! Only thing that could make this gig even cooler would be a reunion of Living Death, I guess hahahaha. Ever since 2008 no signal was found from these North-Rhine Westphalians ;)

To us, it would be a sort of Ruhrpott Metal Event as well. Not Meeting, as it’s only one day and the RMM 2019’s programming sucked big time. Event as in ‘cool German bands in Germany’; bring in Belinda as well. She was sooo thankful for the ticket I got here, she made her mother make us a huge Kerstpakket \m/ (as in ‘traditional gift box from work or business associates’) and it’s packed! Coming to NH Hotels, the one I always use, came as a surprise to me… I’d changed my booking on Belinda’s name and NOT have a second room >< Uhm, OK, is there a room vacant then? ‘Yes sir, we’d already thought there was a bit of mishap, there’s another room available’ Pfff. No need to sleep on the couch haha. When in line to get in, we were already hailed by Sylvia and Jürgen and so, a box of confetti present ;) In the car Wanda had found out Jeroen Z would be there and bring his new girlfriend. Nice to meet you Sabrina! The fun already extended before a band started, as we found out not only we share birthdays (Jeroen, Jürgen, Jens AND me in the same week) but also those birthdays are going to be combined on M.I.S.E. Open Air! We are now part of a huge Dutch-German-Belgian group of metalheads all going to M.I.S.E! Dixis present, we bring stroopwafels HA HA HA. Now: band time! Assassin had only a very small backdrop but also a huge smoke machine and a crazy light technician! The band has a good sound, but those 4x4x1,000 Watt lights and strobes… I can’t even look straight for more than 5 seconds and FLASH! BLINK! We really like how the band plays, but even Jürgen is annoyed by the lights and it doesn’t help he’s got a huge hernia to prevent us from joining the little, cozy pit. Frank Blackfire has a great time on stage too, double bill for him today ;) I met Husky and he showed me there’s a new EP with him on it: the self titled Trinitas EP is in the pocket ;) Assassin played some 45 minutes and I know they played at least Here Comes the Pain and Assassin.

Getting back to our metalkneipen was fun, somehow everybody was thrilled Holy Moses would enter stage in a couple of minutes. I hardly had time to get beer or deliver it, from back to front I had to jump around headbangers and fistbangers and not spill it all ;) It turned out Holy Moses doesn’t gig extensively anymore and it would be their first show in some five months and their third show this year… but it kicked ass! The band, with much more friendly lights, had an incredible sound and killer set list (Wanda found it when Sodom was already half way their set lying in beer and other goo) and was ready to dehumanize some dogs! ;)
- Def Con II
- Finished with the Dogs
- Hellhound
- Nothing for My Mum
- World Chaos
- Jungle of Lies
- Panic
- Life's Destroyer
- Undead Dogs
- Reborn Dogs
- SSP (Secret Service Project)
- Current of Death
- Too Drunk to Fuck
At the last song the band gave friends and family the opportunity to enter stage and bang with Sabrina, don’t hassle the bass player :) what a fun look that always gives… she also did that on the Wãldrock Reunion some years ago ;) The band had a great pit in front of them, but somehow I didn’t join yet. I was too busy getting merch for Belinda (no more Sodom shirts sized M or L??), Sabrina (‘oh, did you already have a Holy Moses patch? It’s for strong women’ \m/ ) and a Sodom belt buckle! Great, I’d thought they were sold out on last year’s Headbanger’s Ball Tour! Great to have lockers, even halfway Sodom’s set we could rent a second one ;)

Sodom did a fun sound check, asking the crowd if it was loud enough ‘NEEIINNN!’ if it was sharp enough ‘JAAAAWOHL!’ and if the beer was cold enough? Of course, pity it was Heiny… in friggin’beer country of the world we drank friggin’Heiny! I knew beforehand there would be some headache in my car the following morning… but Sodom is a band I don’t see without a beer in hand. The band played their entire new set of EPs, ancient material, a Motörhead cover, old stuff and fan favorites… Sodom is a band I definitely don’t mind seeing as often as last years, they do impress AGAIN. Tom Angelripper is clearly in super mood, makes jokes, is honored the venue sold out completely, has had a great time seeing his old friends in Holy Moses and Assassin again; he mentioned something nearly every song he announced. Sodom is in bloody great form tonight. From Genesis XIX the band dives into Sodomy and Lust and off with the heads! Off with the sweat! Off with the beers, into the pit you go and stay there!! This Thrashing December Tour reminds me of that 2006 gig on Boxing Day in De Melkweg, some 6 dates between Christmas and New Year, going blind drunk with three killer bands. Back then it was Sodom with their drinking buddies in Finntroll and Legion of the Damned and the party is alike!! My routine was: look at the band for a sec, hit the pit, be cooled off with beer (drinking or over my head, thanks Jeroen!), hit the pit once more, make friends, cool off with beer (drinking or over my shirt, thanks Jürgen hihihi) and back to the front line trench again. Wanda stood second row, she said, but I haven’t even seen her. Jürgen had my glasses, so I didn’t recognize anyone but Christian, the ‘denim with only Sodom’-dude I met so often. He’s going to M.I.S.E. too \m/

Sodom bombed Oberhausen again, it was friggin’awesome! On the parking lot we were accompanied by some four Dutch headbangers we met before, but still no names… they rounded up in Belinda’s room but were nearly harmless ;) Our alarm clock stood at 8:45 the following morning, as Belinda was expected to be near De Kuip,the iconic Feyenoord stadium, around noon. Breakfast? Nope, just some coffee when we were out of Oberhausen. So, driving some 480 km instead of 240 I got home exhausted, but happy. Seen two pretty cool bands and one friggin’awesome one, met and made friends again and the perspective of another great festival Summer is near. The 2019 balance: 44 shows halfway across over Europe, only a few without my love/beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel, only two pairs of tickets unused, some 20 more shirts bought, some 100 patches bought and given away, some new festival grounds and some old ones, mostly with cool people around and plenty to tell to my rabid readers. I thank you all, for reading/reactions and other frivolities, hints to new bands or gigs, but mostly: METAL!! From Wanda and me: have a great heavy new year, metal up your beers!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:15 pm 
 

2 Years Under the Sign of the Black Serpent festival, Unleashed, Massacre, Bochum, Germany; Jan.17th (and 18th? Uhm, you'll see. Graceless in Recklinghausen)

Unleashed is a band I like. I quit buying their records aeons ago, as I find the CDs a bit interchangeable, but live they stand their ground firmly. I secretly want to meet Johnny once, to thank him for being kicked out of Nihilist (haha) and thus create this milestone of death metal. That Unleashed would play with Entrails, Gods Forsaken and the reunited Massacre is great, but I made a few little mistakes about thìs gig:
a. it’s not a tour,
b. it’s not a traveling gig,
c. it’s not a two day festival but mostly
d.: Entrails, Massacre and Gods Forsaken do play Holland, WITH ASPHYX AND FLESHCRAWL.
Last, e. it’s in Bochum. What the hell happens beyond this gig in Bochum? When Wanda found this on FB I was instantly aroused, thinking ‘hell yes, book!’ but never took the time to see the rest fall into place. That the Entrails tour would visit Holland was not a big deal, they’ve played here quite often. Massacre had to cancel the Death to All tour (with Loudblast) due to splitting up… and Gods Forsaken isn’t so big yet they can ‘easily’ ignore tour opportunities like these. But fact is, there’s another Asphyx gig I’m going to miss, as Rhea told me smiling widely on Jordi’s birthday. She’d been to nearly all Dutch Asphyx gigs, but she’d never seen me there (OK we met on Baroeg Open Air haha). But only a few days before actually driving to Bochum, I got the beats out of my tummy once more: I got an e-mail from the German ticketmaster I had to use for this gig saying “Sehr geehrter Kunde, zu Ihrer Bestellung für die Veranstaltung "2 Years Under The Black Serpent" gibt es wichtige Neuigkeiten. Der Veranstalter hat uns mitgeteilt, dass Ihr Event verlegt wurde. Die neuen Veranstaltungsdaten lauten:” Me speaking German isn’t half bad, but reading is another severe point… before I could use vertalen.nu or any Translate-that-isn’t-Goodle ;) I thought the venue or date had been changed… yeah, only by half an hour :lol: Pfff, better think before freaking out haha.

That I had not booked my days off formally was another problem. I had calamity service on that Friday and just around the time I got Wanda off Amstel and into our car, I was called… huge oil spill on Loosdrecht! Damned! I already signaled the hotel we might check in some later, but until 4 PM I still had that friggin’spill to deal with! I called about seven times, Wanda holding the phone to my ears, speeding up to 130 km/hour and keep telling others to do their friggin’jobs! At the time I reached the border the cleaning crew had quit, the offender had confessed and the administration knew they could wait, I turned off the friggin’iKolereding and drove pass ‘s Heerenberg, into Germany. Coming to the hotel was funny too, as there were several cars without license plates and even one with a hand written note by the Dortmund police saying it’s forbidden to park a car without license plates HA HA HA. First souvenir of this weekend ;) We got a taxi, it was a bit further than I expected but the Matrix venue was still closed? Uhm, apart from Wanda’s pancakes I could use something warm, but Bruno’s Ismit was so full I waited. OK, there’s a supermarket WITH PFEFFIE!! Ah, we have all the time in the world tomorrow, let’s hunt for green liquor then :) First man we met inside were my Eistnaflug friends Kris and Manni and Heiko had a great plan: Graceless would play Recklinghausen the next day! First band of this night was Home Reared Meat, a hillbilly grindcore band from Lathen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The band has a truck full of trucker caps, hay hoods, garden pants, too small oily shirts, too short cut denim pants, clogs, banjo, two singers and a sound between Napalm Death and Rompeprop. Wanda was so thrilled she bought a CD hihi. Next up was Tavaron. Their merch stand held two logos, one like the Talanas one and one illegible, ‘it IS the same band, you know’-attitude and their quote is ‘Depressive Black Art’. Uhm, are we getty artsy now? My filthiness, what a boring piece of post-black metal these guys play. Good thing was, apart from the Astra Urtyp beer for Wanda and Veltins for me, was that Gods Forsaken played after those friggers. The International Death Metal Bulldozer Gang steamed up and never let go. Spoke to Alwin shortly before the gig, Christel was doing a photo shoot again and all paths are flatter now. The band went in with a smile and a great sound, good volume and the first little pit of the day was penned down. Christel gave Wanda the set list before the show ‘so Alwin doesn’t forget it, you don’t have to grab him’ :lol:
- In a Pitch Black Grave
- By Hate He Comes
- Smells of Death
- From the Inside they Came
- Ashes of the Dead
- They Crawl
- The Process of Death
- Birth of Insanity
Funny to see how long each song is supposed to be (3,37, 4.11 and so on) and beneath the songs it’s ‘total playing time ca: 38 minutes’ heh heh, don’t bother about 37 or 38 seconds then HA HA HA. Out for a quick bite, we thought, but Bruno’s had been sold out completely. It was like early Wãldrock all over HA HA.

Entrails is also a band I really like, but I kept buying their CDs ever since that first time in Berlin, 2012. The band surrounding Jimmy Lundqvist has changed personally, several times too, but the style is evidently recognizable Swedish Death Metal I like a lot. During the sound check was the best time to shoot pictures, as the light engineer did a lot of strobe and powerbox-lighting when a band did play… The intro was from Tales from the Morgue and Beyond the Flesh was played first, but we kept looking if thé two biggest guys of the venue weren’t too close to us… they made a drunken impression and impressed so many by their statues (2*1*1 m ><) and uncoordinated moves, many gave way. For Hell.. for a decent pit I might add. Not the enormous waggle of +150 kg fat and beers… I had to stay around for Eaten by the Dead but then we moved backwards. It simply didn’t feel good, even though Matrix in Bochum is known for a great sound (said Manni and Kris) and it was good. Just not our pit, that’s all. From the back we heard at least Gravekeeper and Crawling Death, got some HM2/Entrails patches, gave some away ;) and waited for Massacre to begin. But apart from Kam Lee, who’s in the band nowadays? No Bill Andrews, I knew that, no Rick Rozz, no Alan West (is he out or not? ;) ) and certainly no Terry Butler crowd the stage tonight. Alwin doesn’t agree with me about the impact and importance of this band setting, to him it’s Massacre no matter what and we’ll have a great time. Uhm, it takes us until Mutilation (who wrote what?), Evil Dead (another question) and Corpse Grinder (yeah…) to get interested, to get a little closer to the stage again. I am an old Death fan that hasn’t gotten the entire Kam Lee/Rick Rozz back story and don’t really care what version is played. Nice to notice: it was Jonny Pettersson that was honored to play with Massacre in his own gig, he was invited by Kam Lee on stage to perform the last two songs. He looked thrilled haha. Within seconds after the show Kam was off stage handing out stickers, making a skull themed autograph on any man, woman or whatever was interested. Picture by Wanda, see her FB ;)

Not to be rude to Johnny Hedlund & Co, but I was getting tired and having seen Unleashed in Belgium last Summer, we skipped the band nearly entirely. We wanted a taxi home and got one. No need for afpils, uhm, we didn’t have German beers yet. The night was good and the breakfast was great, now it’s time to hunt for Pfeffie, German Eggnog, Edelkirsch and some great beer brands; we ended up with 4 German beers and one Danish one, Bailey’s Flavored Cake (…), FC Schalke 04 magnets as well. We parked about 10 meters away from Altstadtschmiede in a parking garage and got to be tourist in Recklinghausen. Here’s another magnet set for ya hahaha. It turned out Forge Fire Fest was held for the tenth time and it’s organized by Sabiendas!! Within a blink of an eye we’re pulled into the venue by Graceless bass player Jasper and stuffed in the dining room of the venue. Alexandra and Christian of Sabiendas had been cooking pasta with meat, meat and more meat hihi; we got something to drink. The band was clearly surprised and delighted we had showed up, even though it was a mere coincidence and a bunch of mistakes from my side we got there :lol:. We also didn’t want to intrude any band rituals, but seeing a set list negotiation is fun. I can never put to paper what the jokes about these songs and their order are ;) The venue itself was like a hay shack, with a ceiling in the shape of a wooden farm house of old, an ancient fire place (or should I have said smithy in the first place? Ohh, of course you doof ;) ) and an uneven floor of stone cake. The stage was about a foot high. I don’t think I’ll easily forget Alexandra’s surprise when she spotted me through her cellphone camera to film the first band: Dipsomania. The band originates from a town not 10 miles away from Recklinghausen and to my surprise, they’ve been around since 1988! A band that plays thrash that didn’t exactly fit in normal thrash standards, some death growl that also didn’t exactly fit normal death metal standards… like Thanatos with only one guitar. We liked it, not only because some well-played riffs, sharp solos and great melodies, but also plain fun! The band seems to be in practice mode, but play tight as a hen near a cock and totally lose themselves in their own achievements ;) Wanda later bought the demo-compilation and got a hand full of stickers to expand the fun to Westwoud. We also were hit on the shoulders, not only by Heiko, but also by our big friend Leon as well! Turns out it’s only an hour drive from his place, forget about a two hour plus trip to Drachten Deathfest ;) Oh darn, there’s a second band too, they’re called Death by Boredom ehh Exile and these guys all seem in a different facial mood: singer looks as if he’s angry with the uneven floor, the guitarist looks in love with his frets, the bass player looks plain difficult and the drummer is happily baking huge, huge pots. Add a 7x4 cm sel list like a grocery bill, seven string bass, a seven string guitar, a click track and a tape for the intros with the deathcore and we’re out of the place; having a great time with Marc and Remco at the merch stand. Marc gave me two Graceless lighters as I bought a patch that will go over the ocean and Wanda got her Dipsomania stuff. When we got back in, greeted by Jan’s father (!) we heard Eaten announced, but please, please, don’t let this monument of death metal be sung by a pinched tenor instead of the deep baritone needed >< Back to bed, guys!

Heiko mostly came to see the last two bands, he said. He’d been listening to Tortharry for a long time, but I had no clue at all. The band needed three tables to show all their merch, ranging from shirts to shorts, DVDs, CDs, flags, a flag pole and even a deodorant! Is this Venom of late nineties? I snickered at their merch, but was blown away by the dirty, fast, brick-heavy death metal these guys play. It was old school Krabathor meets old Nile/Morbid Angel, with a dash of thrash as well. The vocals are divided just like Nile did in the old days. The band is a three piece powerhouse, but doesn’t need bass overdrive tricks to blow your guts right through the slaughterhouse! The Sabiendas members totally and utterly freaked out and after two, three songs we followed blindly. Banging heads, flying fists, an occasional roar of a known piece of lyric and brutal death metal surrounded us. We looked at each other and tried to find compromise in what to buy from this Czech band…The band itself? Humble to play anywhere, grateful for being invited (again), happy with circumstances and, not in the least place, make new friends and new fans. I grabbed a set list:
- Intro Tennosei
- Tennosei no Tenshi
- Innerfrost
- Entrenched
- If I Was (being announced like ‘this is from our 1994 single’;) )
- Intro new CD (in Czech: Intro nové CD ;) )
- False Superiority
- Without a Break
- Silenced Commands
- Clouds
- Intro
- Self-Sale
- Epilogue
- Request
- The Day has Died
- Case 1 https://youtu.be/aC1Lpzn0wsA (huh?? I was on friggin’Brutal Assault 2012 :cool: )
- 100 % Follower
Whaoaoaoaoahhh it’s been a while since I was so surprised; and even more surprised I could have witnessed them before!! The band also seems to be near the organization of Czech Deathfest, as the three have CzDf shirts, their amps are covered in a CzDf logo, OEF hoodie and whatnot. If CzDf is still around…

Graceless could have had a hard time beating Tortharry (meaning Torture in Czech) in vileness or brutality, but they did it slightly different. To me, it really felt like a private concert for just the two of us, meeting the band, being pulled into the dresser-diner room like this, heaps of high fives and sharp looks, solos or riffing seemed to be ‘just for you, dude!’. It had grown quite warm in the forge, but when the headbanging and shouting continues, everybody has to wipe sweat. I change from water to orange soda; Heiko and Leon don’t seem to be able to ensure me the same as I get a cola or a carbonated water when their rounds are about… See the hand written set list, literally:
- Gods
- Legions
- Slashed
- Lock Stock
- Shadow Pipe
- Ruins
- Dragonballs-Z
- Die on Demand
- Revenge Us
- Iron Beers
[[Of course, these songs were meant:
We Will be Gods
Legions of the Fallen
Slashed and Served
Shadowlands
Ruins of Desolation
Here Be Dragons
Die on Demand
Revenge Us
Iron Tears of Mortsel
Warpath]]

The shirt I bought says ‘Dampfwalze Death Metal’ and it’s true. Steamroller death metal, damp, dirty, loud, sizzling. The song Revenge Us (is that grammatically correct? I thought not ;) ) is a new song, also found on the Grond-Graceless split and it’s a tribute to Bolt Thrower. Iron Tears was supposed to be the encore, but the smithy trembles with joy the band has to find another encore… it became Warpath with the remark ‘we’ve never played this live before, so it’s your fault if we fuck up’ :lol: \m/ :) etc. We stuck around after the gig, highly happy with the new (slash dry) shirt, have fun with Sabiendas, Tortharry, Dipsomania and Graceless before it’s time to go. I have a 0,2 l bottle of Pfeffie in the car and a liter can of Tuborg at the hotel…but we didn’t get in the parking garage! Looking better, it closes at 9 PM!! Sunday closed!! I head back into Altstadtschmiede and ask if anyone can call us a taxi, my boss’phone is IN the car… We get a taxi driver that is willing to bring us back to Dortmund, but not before assuring if we can pick the car up on Sunday… NOPE!! Then the best thing in the world happens: the taxi driver has a double job AND so, a double network! He’s in security in the week and taxi driver (‘for vacation money’) in the weekend. This man brought us to a working ATM for cash, yeah, but he thinks it’s no use to return to Recklinghausen by train, bus or whatever, so he starts calling. The parking facility (no answer), police (can’t help, it’s private business), his colleagues in security (they have a ‘guy’ in the other security business that might help’; it DOES help to mention we’re DUTCH tourists that made this mistake), more ideas, he gets a man, with a key and a bill to pay, to KellerstraBe 10!! I am so grateful to Mourad Aremi, I’d rather give him a € 50 tip instead of the 26 requested for waiting time or some 80 for the trip to Dortmund. He refuses, but he’s happy with the (mere) € 15 tip I get to give. Now, about an hour after leaving Altstadtschmiede, I start our beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel with a rrröööaaarrr that winds Wanda up as well… I am so happy she stayed calm, as my stress did nearly surface when I found about the Sunday…. Next problem is to get out of the city, as THE entrance to the Autobahn we need is barred and the friggin’MouradMourad won’t accept bars! It takes about 45 minutes instead of 17 to get to our room… finished the 0,2 l Pfeffie in three zips, brush teeth and sleep… at breakfast the hotel seems to have forgotten us so we walk out, after two requests to pay for breakfast, to the Autobahn once more. If you want a story, hint me a metal show abroad HA HA HA

This had been a rad weekend. One festival day instead of two but two days of metal AND adventure packed in a few FC Schalke 04 fan memorabilia, two new shirts, two new CDs, a box ful of stickers, handful of patches, three set lists and a running order list, two pieces of a Marc drum stick, Jasper’s bass pick, Alwin’s smiles, Alexandra’s kisses, Christian’s hugs, Leon’s new (and bit silent) flame, Heiko’s shoulder buts and a € 30 parking Quittung and METAL!
Thank you again Mourad!!
Edit: We are now officially labelled ‘Graceless’ favorite fan couple’ because of a selfie we made in Graceless shirts holding a bottle of Pfeffie ;)

The edit came from a member (logged in) http://metal-tavern.proboards.com/threa ... t-entrails (guests can sign in)

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:29 pm 
 

Mutator on Wacken Metal Battle, Het Podium Hoogeveen

ShreddedEd usually keeps me informed about the band plans. New songs to be penned, possibly recording, venues to be destroyed, stickers, whatever. But this time, when he called me on Old Year’s Day, he forgot to mention the band would do a battle of the band contest. Wanda did notice it on FB and as I met Jane last week, I made sure the band would be surprised again hihi. I asked Jane not to mention anything to Alex, to increase the fun for all of us ;) That the band signed in on the Drenthe-edition of the Metal Battle is good for the band, not to be playing ‘only Noord-Holland’; I’ve seen the name Bloid on the Noord-Holland edition of the Metal Battle and am HAPPY not to endure these doofs to see ‘my boys’. Between the bands, playing in order of sortition, would be accompanied by Mass Decline. B&B booked, here we go.

The hotel seemed to be an old as ffkk-venue, that highly needed repairs and a decent cook. Walls were nearly crumbling, there was a smell of sewage in the corridor and the bar personnel was nearly deaf… but we didn’t drive an hour and a half for a rusty hotel… When we got to Het Podium (what an original name for a venue ><) we were already hailed by a smiling Alex, a hugging Nick and a really surprised Ed; we were clearly the first visitors of the evening. Beer is Heiny, uhm, better skip that, Wanda, but heck, no one complains. Nick said he looked at the set list and was proud to have co-written most of them. Nice to hear that! The sorting had taken place before; it was Mutator to start tonight. Alex told me before the band is in writing mode, but an opportunity to get to Wacken as a band was too much not to do it. The band was introduced by, as I later heard, the organizer of Occultfest and started off violently. Bang your head till you bleed, I kept reminding myself. The band’s sound was pretty good, but somewhere in the mix Ed seemed totally overlooked. No more covers anymore, just hit the barrels hard and see what it’ll bring them..
- Karma
- The End is Near (totally new!)
- World War Ten (me shouting top of my lungs, Jeffrey looking aghast at me \m/ )
- Manipulation
- Shiva’s Night
- Hit
I looked around and did not really spot many visitors, even though the event was free and I guess there had been some support by FB, MySpace and whatnot; Aardschok DID mention the band battle. I soon found out Alwin Roes was one of the judges, as was Gertie, who organizes Schoonebeek Deathfest. I didn’t want to influence anyone, but I knew from the looks the band had at least ringed some bell by some judges… I thought I could support the band even more by buying another two CDs to take across the ocean ;) but gave one to Ronald of Overruled, who just told me he’d missed out on Mutator completely… I got the band to sign his copy of the Years of Pain EP and made sure he met at least Alex, to see if the bands could do something together. What band would NOT be invited to a possible union of these thrashers, was following band Sturmreiter (translated Stormrider). Wanda thought of it as a family reunion, as some 70, 75 year old man with a bass guitar singing, clearly his 35-40 year old son and 15 year old drummer looked alike. What I can tell about the band is that they CLEARLY don’t play metal, apart from 20 effect pedals they hardly have talent to play in the first place. The music sounded like microwave-warmed-up-Iggy&The Stooges, then some Stones goo and it doesn’t help the drummer looks like a dead pilot… Please leave. I didn’t get warm from Dubai Coke as well, the band dressed up like a cross Mudvayne-Avatar-Vortex (R.I.P. Martjo Drongers) and their music seems to hit these three as well. Buhhh, what a downfall, it took us about two minutes to see the chancelessness of this band. Said hello to Big Peter and Maja, but didn’t return in the hall until Mark of Chaos got to stage. These guys, as I heard Alwin complain, ALSO don’t really play metal, but some version of Peter Pan Speedrock! OK, it is energetic, but totally lacks originality and metalness. Alex already did forsee the outcome: ‘mark my words, these guys win’. A fun song about a ‘kutbuurvrouw’ didn’t really improve my overall idea of this band. In a fit of creativity I offered Alex to make him a Mutator patch, like I did for Jeffrey.

The judges needed about half an hour to deliberate, in these minutes Mass Decline got to stage. We’d seen the band before and thought 13-to-the-dozen-death metal… the band hardly got attention from other band members and visitors. The judges told something they found funny or bad about the bands, but I already knew (somehow) what the reaction to Mutator was: not really fluently played, need a second guitar but OK ideas. Yeah right. None of the other bands are on MA (yet), none are inspiring to me, no need to see any of them again. Certainly not on metal festivals… but indeed, as Alex had foreseen, Mark of Chaos did win. By the time the three piece band were done cheering, we were already walking outside. Full of Heiny, full of a feeling of stupidity concerning the winning band and awaiting a huge hangover. What’s the point in these metal battles, if what you think are good or surprising bands that don’t get the chance to show themselves to a bigger audience? I now hope Overruled and Mutator will get to play together and then we’re totally in! On the other side, we’ll probably never end up in Wacken again HA HA HA.

Long story short: we support Mutator through thick and thin, but it’s not up to us to get them on, say, Wacken, Baroeg Open Air, Occultfest, Stonehenge or even Schoonebeek DF. But we’ll show up next time ;) Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 9:51 am 
 

God Dethroned – CD presentation for Illuminati, Baroeg Rotterdam, Febr.9th

With Henri Sattler I go a long way back, as my first God Dethroned show was in 1993, I have the Lords of the Stone demo and greatly appreciate he’s continuing Grand Supreme Blood Court now that others stepped out. Not that I already was on speaking terms with him with that 1993 Gorefest show in Simplon, I’ve met him several times. I clearly remember my own remark on MDF 2018, as the voetbal club nearest to his home promoted to the Eredivisie (‘do you have your FC Emmen season ticket already?’ – snickers – recognition - he hates voetbal :) ) and a nice remark on Zwolsch Zwaar Nieuwjaar 2015: ‘ah, the world didn’t end in 2014’ – ‘would you have liked it any other way?’ – snickers. Wanda stated last week God Dethroned might as well be the band she’d seen most often, this would be her fourth GD show, of which the second in Rotterdam. Kudos!

Thinking the entire Rotterdam metal scene would be present, I bought a set of tickets early as possible. The weather could pepper our day, as storm Ciara could disrupt any means of transportation >< At least one (mute?) train passenger was enthusiast for our denims haha. I don’t speak sign language at all, but she knew what we meant ;) From Rotterdam Lombardijen on, we were accompanied by a man that knew Wanda’s ex from his school days and he says he’s the biggest GD fan of the South of Holland. OK, we drink together then! I quickly bought a ‘splatter-white’ vinyl of the new album and the SE for Wanda; I keep the patch :lol: [I’m working on denim #17 as Dutch Death Metal Hoodie and GD deserves a fine spot. I wanted to put a World Ablaze shirt on as back print, but as I gave my shirt to Deserted Fear’s Fabian once…]. I brought an Edding 3000 Marker and here’s Henri already. He was delighted I bought the vinyl, of this version there are only one hundred made. Ahh, nice conversation with Officium Triste’s Pim followed, as he needed black vinyl too. It turns out I have a very limited vinyl edition of OT’s Ne Vivam and it didn’t cost me anything :) Wanda wanted to support bands no matter what, so she bought shirts of Dawn of Disease and the tour shirt of GD.

The first band was a surprise at several levels. Of course, if you haven’t seen nor heard the band before and had had no time to YT anything, we looked in awe at Aesmah. The French band plays a subtle and supple cross of Dark Tranquility, Alcest and At the Gates. In Baroeg it can be notoriously loud, but this band turned their guitars down themselves (?). Next up was Dawn of Disease, the German band that exactly knows how to make melodic death metal. I was thinking of buying some material for Alex, as they resemble mid-era Amon Amarth to me now and know my brother gets warm from such music. Or is it a sign the band altered their logo from scythy-crossy-spiky to some Hardwired to Self-D-version of their band name? I don’t know. We had a good time, even though our expected Rotterdam friends weren’t so abundantly present as we thought. We had a nice chat with Bettina and Erik, Sharon and her lovely and elegant friend Manu; all eagerly waiting for the Black Beilen Death Squad: GOD DETHRONED. The band went in full fire, or should I say in full light? Silly, the first song is, of course with a CD presentation, the first single: Illuminati. Henri was thankful nearly entire Baroeg filled up ‘great you showed up and not being blown away’ ;) First row: Wanda, Sharon, Manu and me present. Wanda got the set list from guitarist Dave [thanks!!] :
- Illuminati
- Book of Lies
- World Ablaze
- Storm of Steel
- No Man’s Land
- Spirit of Beelzebub
- Gabriel
- White Army (Escape Across the Ice)
- Poison Fog
- Sigma Enigma
- Nihilism
- Serpent King [Soul Capture 1562 crossed out]
- Boiling Blood
- Villa Vampiria
- Soul Sweeper (not on the set list, clearly the band played too fast to quit already :)

I think I’ve seen God Dethroned in nearly all live settings, but not as sharp, violent and eager as this time. In the year they had announced to quit it was very good, with Henke Zinger on bass it was awesome, Mike Ferguson is a cool guitarist; the year of the return was very good, but this was great. OK, during the Weesenbeek/Delahaye days they nearly blew Vader off stage [hence I understand Epica is a lot heavier since they came aboard] and with Roel Sanders it was pleasant but this has to be the best I’d seen them so far. Never mind FortaRock, MDF or Leeuwarden :)

Happily afpilzen with the band got my the remaining autographs on my vinyl, water and juice for the train ride home. Would it be without windy details and -delays?? No. The show was over around 19:30, but we got home at midnight. Gosh what a hell of a sack of wind on these 4 kilometers… I slept long in the train, but slept too short in my own bed. My alarm clock nearly smashed, but I had to get to Amsterdam in time. Smiling widely through small eyes I got there, knowing it was well worth the effort. We were highly illuminated by metal! Setting anything ablaze! Storm of Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:34 am 
 

Thrash Alliance 2020: Destruction, Legion of the Damned, 013, Tilburg, Dec.18th

When this tour was announced we had to make some choices and not the easiest ones: do we head out to Utrecht or Oberhausen for The Bay Area Strikes Back or Tilburg or Enschede for the Thrash Alliance tour? In bands: Bay Area (sold out quickly) : Testament, Exodus, Death Angel. Thrash Alliance: Destruction, Legion of the Damned, Suicidal Angels. Fkcufukcuckf!!! Why the hell would booking agents bring such tours so close to each other?? Why does the Bay Area hit Munich twice and The Low Lands only once?? Why not combine it with, say, Ruhrpott Metal Meeting, that way the 2019 edition would have made SOME sense… Why the hell are those Dutch dates on work days?? OK, for the Utrecht edition of the Bay Area tour we were too late, easypeasy. I nearly got us tickets for Oberhausen, forgetting we’d head out to Germany the weekend before AND Switzerland a few weekends after?? Silly herrieman, you’re no 18 anymore… Tilburg it became. We’ve had excellent experiences in Het Wapen van Tilburg, halfway Little Devil (Khemmis, Satan) and 013 (sooo many times ;) ), close to Tilburg Centraal, no need to park, no need to rush A27 hell, OK. Jordi increased the fun by asking me if I’d know anyone who’d like to go for free to this show! One round of text messages later brought in, of course, Belinda!

The show on a Tuesday meant I’d work normally, be picked up by Wanda, head on by train, eat, HJ and then 013. But as you know from me by now, it wasn’t as easy as I planned. Wanda took two trains earlier than we’d agreed, she missed Belinda on Sloterdijk JUST by closing doors and in Tilburg I had to find Jordi for the extra ticket. I’d given my original to Belinda by then, I knew it would work out at the box office and this way no one needed to be stressy anymore. We got to 013 and already found some Westfriesians (Marcel XI and Reem) and got in. I was underimpressed by both the Legion as the Destruction shirts, but Wanda wanted a hoodie anyway; I got her the Legion one she’d shown me before. But first beer and band. Uhm, call it Bah Varia-beer, the first Brabant beer made me gag, especially after two excellent HJs of course. Band, uhm, why’s an average death metal band hooked up to this thrash metal gig? Does Schmier have not only Burning Witches under his company but also Final Breath? I knew I’d seen them in Bamberg before, but then it was way more fitting to have this band around. Now, it was just plain, dull death metal with some near-core screaming as vocals. The sound was like mud being poured into a laundromat at high speed. The band is musically OK though, but the mix and the vocals were way below par. The audience, not really high in numbers yet as it’s still only 6:30 PM, acts like they’re sleepwalking. I went to the bar to ask if this Bavaria shit was a carnival joke, but it’s officially the beer to be poured for the coming years. Uhgg. As to expand my ‘joy’, I get a shower of my own beer when I return from the bar downstairs… The man apologized and got me a new one during the Legion show. Kudos!

We would rather see and hear Suicidal Angels. The Greeks try hard to get everybody off their feet and moshing, but hardly any reaction to the staccato follows the first few songs. The sound is awful at the first songs, maybe the Bah Varia works on the sound engineer as well ><, but it does improve so much a small but violent pit occurs during songs like Blood Bath and Apokathilosis (Dikke Pim freaking out). I sneak out for a surprise: shirt + patch, who takes what? Haha, I knew Belinda would love the SA tour shirt; got the red SA patch for Wanda’s red denim. € 20, all in haha. A lot better than the € 30 for a common Destruction shirt! The Legion hoodie was only € 35… And Legion of the Damned was next. And how! And fast! And heavy! And a great sound! Forget the lighting, forget the smoke machine, raise your voices and try to outshout Maurice and His Howling Armageddon! The band goes full speed ahead, never mind any brick wall or other bump in the road (/dance floor :) ) and KILL TO THESE SONGS:
- Slaughtering the Pigs
- Doom Priest
- Palace of Sin
- Undead Stillborn
- *T-F* [I have no idea what this means, but it’s on the set list. I can’t find any reference to any song or album, so be it)
- Taste of the Whip
- Slaves of the Southern Cross
- *Witching Minute*
- Feel the Blade (Maurice: ‘this song is originally out of the Occult days’, I yell ‘Killing for Recreation’, snickers, bro-time, but really, really Feel the Killing HA HA HA. At last, a DECENT pit occurs, not only me and Stefan/Dikke Pim/some girlielike denims/obnoxious looks like ‘what the hell do you do now?’ >< but HIT HIT HIT!!)
- The Widow’s Breed
- Legion of the Damned (‘this is for the old fans like this grey half bald bastard in front’ 8-) )
- Dark Coronation
- Outro

Panting, I get Fabian’s set list, thankful for a great show, tight as an oven bun, band in great cooperation, I get another beer as shower… the audience did need a little convincing (me, of course, challenging big men and cross eyed women in front) before the appropriate hell broke loose. I chose to dampen the effects of the Bah Varia by water, replacing beer/sweat with water. Good thinking, as Destruction was up next. First water I had I met Aaron, who’s going to Death Metal Birthday too! He got a Destruction patch to commemorate this happening. I haven’t actually seen much of Destruction, but I can tell the newer songs were greeted a bit surly, but that was optional decay from my side, I guess. My glasses were totally smeared hahaha. The audience doesn’t bother about my glasses and Schmier gets what he wants every time: sing along, shout the chorus, hit the pit with familiar tunes, raise your beers and be thankful for old and new metalheads showing up on a work day… here’s what I found on a picture of the set list:
- Born to Perish
- Nailed to the Cross
- Armageddonizer
- Tormentor
- Open End
- Rotten
- Mad Butcher
- Thrash till Death
- Betrayal
- Inspired by Death
- Live Without Sense
- Death Trap
- Bestial Invasion
- Butcher Strikes Back
- Thrash Attack (thanking Legion of the Damned for 14 years of friendship, Suicidal Angels for nearly as long, I was on that tour too ;) )
- Curse the Gods
Again, my scent is obvious. Bah Varia, sweat, is that denim so old already or is it something else? I’m soaking wet, panting, nearly broke, but I don’t care. I have had a great night, even getting better meeting Schmier and nearly the entire Legion of the Damned band, telling Fabian about old LotD shows and Maurice about this 26th 8-) , seeing Aggelos of Suicidal Angels attempts to sell more SA stuff :) better learn proper English, dude HA HA HA. Being in a band doesn’t have to mean you’re into free p*ssy hahaha. I got the hoodie I already mentioned, packed Wanda into it (now she looks like a Michelin star hahaha) and told my friends to meet me again, whether in Germany, 013 or on NDF… as long as there’s metal, beer and friends I’m in! Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 9:36 am 
 

Death Metal Birthday VII, feat. Entrails, Febr. 22nd, Hypothalamus.de, Rheine Germany

It’s nice to meet friends on places you don’t expect. I clearly remember heading out to Rheine a couple of years ago, not really knowing what to expect, with a mere flyer on me and a rented car with a sleeping bag in it. I met Lampy there, a bus load of Dutchies stranded, Izegrim got there on their own, Cripper played, three Marcels and, as I later found out, Käthe. Andrée had been sick then, if I remember correctly. Now it’s my 6th DMBD and Käthe had asked a month ago if I’d booked a hotel or not. ‘No, not yet’, knowing Andrée had already mentioned our room was available again. Classic communication failure in a couple, happens to us too hahaha. It was also the second time I’d bring Wanda, she’d been FB’ing herself blind if she’d meet more of her digital friends. That Entrails would headline was a novity to this little party, as Entrails is Swedish and not German or Dutch ;) Over the years I’ve seen absolute amazing bands in Rheine, had great chats (in German, English and Dutch :) ) and went off my rocker drunk several times. We brought stroopwafels, Edam cheese and HJ. Coming to Westerkappeln already had a delicious smell hanging in Andrée’s sun spot, he’d been cooking pork with beer and it was amazing! Wanda got a new liquor to drink (XUXU, strawberry draped in vodka), we had Pott’s Landbier, Andrée’s favorite, Marvin got cola. He’d be driving.

We got to Hypothalamus.de in pouring rain, gladly we could park nearby. Already several of Käthe’s school-, work- and other friends wanted to share beers with us ;) I started the notes for this gig with another of Käthe’s gifts to us: a Maryland Deathfest pen haha. Aeon of Disease would start in minutes. I wasn’t sure whether I’d seen the band before, but do know I’d love to see them again: fierce, modern death metal, an enormous deep and violent grunt, pretty guitar lines and heavy as a brick. Instantly thought ‘share this band’ and wanted six patches. I had to come back to the merch table, as the package they wanted to sell (patch+demo cassette, even though they have a full length album already?) wasn’t chopped up yet. Fine, I can wait. I gave the patches to Andrée, Käthe (similar denims, right :) ), Wanda, Stefan and hey, Aaron is already present too. Oh, now I don’t have one of my own… looked back to the table and they were already gone when Breed started. Wanda managed to grab a set list:
- Intro Disease Rising
- Mercenaries of the Ancient Ones
- Merciless Northern Chapter
- Divine Rage
- Fathomless Instincts
- Iron Domination
- Intro Ominous Kurz with nice penis drawing
- Omnious Signs (yeah, spelled like this ;) )
- Edge of Purgatory (second penis in)
- Veil of Oblivion
- Trial by Combat (last penis, now squirting ><)
- Artifacts
- A New Age of Terror
I looked at the stage and smiled: the New World Depression drum kit was used the entire day. Happily no sign of the band with that name LOL but I can say the same about this Breed band. I hated the cross Exhorder, Cripper and Seita. Usually I like Cripper a lot, because of their guitar sound, but this was plain boring. Add an inferior copy of latter James Hetfield as singer and you know more. They’re too hip to play decent death metal and lack a sound of their own. They’re not on MA so I won’t bother anymore.

The Bits had been going swiftly from bar to arm to throats. Wanda, with half a pint of vodka x strawberry behind her uvula, swaggered and started drinking water. Good thinking, the Bit isn’t my favorite beer brand too and they came in FAST! Third band of the evening would be Embedded from Osnabrück, also a newy to me and to my surprise, Käthe too. She’s been born and raised in Osnabrück but didn’t know them at all. And they’re from 1994! The brutal death metal band raised some votes of approval, that is clear. It’s like hearing Dying Fetus, but with a much deeper scream/shriek than John Gallagher. Singer Reiner Düsing has a powerful voice and a grin that makes people eager to watch more of the band. See https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Embedded/3624 for more info, titles and names. I must admit I totally missed their merch table >< but that was also during the time Käthe nearly got harassed by an overtly drunk Markus. I showed him to Andrée and offered help, but Andrée said that man is well known for his (alcohol) abuse and the Sig and Lampi know what to do. OK, off to another band. It was funny to see Michiel of The Monolith Deathcult do the lighting of DeadHead ;) clearly TMDC didn’t gig themselves and Michiel was in for a Bit or two. DeadHead surprised many of us, including me. I always considered The Kampen Thrashers as a Kreator clone, but now they have more of themselves in this gig. More fire, more bile, more humor too. Singer / bass player Tom started the show with ‘Wir sind die Sauerkrautfresser vom Holland und spieler thraaaaash metal’ (grammar errors plenty :) ) before hitting The Festering hard. It’s fun to see the drunks enjoy themselves in drunken swirls, halfway between a pit and falling over hahahaha. Go nuts, if you like and that’s exactly what happened in the small hour they got. It made me think of 1991 again, my first encounter with Tom and the boys at Thrash Till Dawn in Almelo. That the band had problems with the amount of money needed for beers and CDs was laughable. He made a funny look when I instantly gave away his set list to one that was clearly more interested in him than in his band HA HA HA. Wanda later said she always thought of DeadHead as a ‘BR-band’ but admitted to like this particular performance; as did I. This show made up for at least three previous DeadHead shows IMO. She also mentioned the lack of professionalism, as none of the members knew what the today prices of merch were (of DeadHead, Lethargy and Beyond Belief). I was tempted to buy some Beyond Belief CD, but didn’t as I looked in my wallet… swoop, € 100 gone already. € 30 for the Aeon of Disease patches, 20 for DeadHead material, the rest… beers of course.
Oh yeah the songs:
- intro
- The Festering
- Phantom Palace
- In Your Room
- Until the Sun Appears
- Helhuizen
- Duhr
- Day of the Devil
- Polar Vortex
- Montana
- Palfium
- Kill Division
- Cold Being (totally ragged bass pick being given :) )

Soon, the headliner would take the stage. Still with the NWD drum kit, but also instant recognition: Pontus ‘Penki’ Samuelsson asked several times ‘haven’t I seen you in Stockholm?’ “YES” :lol: Jimmy is still his introvert self and the others are quite busy preparing for onslaught. Käthe kept saying she failed to buy a shirt, but for once I didn’t budge, I wanted to secure our first row spots for Entrails! From the intro The Tomb Awaits to Cemetery Horrors it was great to be here again. The band, whether veiled in smoke or gasping for beer, has a great time and so do we. With my Irish Drinking Team cap I even had to open Penki’s and Markus’ beers HA HA HA, so now this cap has Entrails beers on it ;) The set list in front of me was soaked in a Bit, but it wasn’t mine nor Jimmy’s ^^^We ended up with free beer, some now attached to the cap, three different guitar picks, a dry set list with signatures and several sizes of Bit glasses, pints and bottles haha. Still no shirt for Käthe, but how is that possible? The band played over an hour, even I got out for a leak and a fresh water during the show ;) Here’s the set list:
- The Tomb Awaits
- Unleashed Wrath
- Beyond the Flesh
- The Morgue
- For Hell (with the number 10 in front?)
- Gravekeeper (with red EEeeee behind it?)
- To Live is to Rot (I looked at Wanda and we both said ‘To Love is to Rot’ :) )
- No Cross Left Unturned
- Carved to the Bone
- The Pyre
- Crawling Death (E-> ??)
- Crawl in You Guts (** in front, red EEeeee behind)
- Epitome of Death EEeeee
- Cemetery Horrors
- Outro 11->8

Seeing the set list makes me wonder what those signs mean. OK, the E is a guitar tone setting but the rest is gibberish to me haha. We stuck around for the autographs, say the last goodbye to the Dutchies (hardly any Dutch paying visitors seen? Uhm, no, not even Marcel IV, Marsha nor the Izegrimmetjes) and Marvin got the car ready. Time for afpilzen, now I got the Potts Dunkel Bier and Wanda some Baileys as the XUXU was finished ;) Marvin was gone before I could thank him for the ride, but he was happy with the AoD patch. Turned out, over breakfast, that Käthe, Andrée and Marvin head out to Zürich too! Andrée hoped we’d arrive at the same time or share the hotel, but it’s a little more complicated ;) The ride home was a wet and windy one. It’s no fun to have to drive 280 km (including Chinese) in tough winds and blistering rain, but we did it. We thanked Andrée and Käthe by app and mail again, pictures headed from Westwoud to Westerkappeln and back and WE MEET AGAIN!! METAL!!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 9:40 am 
 

Campaign for Musical Destruction 2020, Patronaat Haarlem, Febr.25th (Napalm Death, Misery Index, BAT)

How many Campaign for Musical Destruction-tours have there been? And how many have I visited? I can remember a shirt I once got for Sinterklaas, 1990 I think, with ‘CfMD – feat. Napalm Death & Morbid Angel’ and a full back print of touring Europe, big halls, small venues and third and fourth band on it. I had a metal uni buddy who went to that tour, but didn’t have the money for the shirt, so after a while I gave that shirt to him. He was soooo pleased :lol: I don’t think Arno will have entered this tour, as it’s the only Dutch date and I know for sure he’s never left The Low Lands for a show haha. I have, thinking back I’ve seen Napalm Death several times over the Dutch borders. The Bloodstock show the Napalm Dudes did was special to me, as it was so close to their own hometown; seeing Missy all excited to be near Barney and her anger for being kicked the third second of the show in Sound Stage ;) All good memories, just like my decision to head out to Haarlem again, again for a CfMD, again with some bands I had not seen before. Note, these tickets were bought AFTER we decided to head out to Switzerland to see Notorious Death with Demolition Hammer, only hinting about the same tour we were to be thrilled by tonight. My focus point was BAT, I dig the music, wondered about meeting Ryan Waste again but had not seen him in this setting. We were accompanied by Peter (Lord Belial) after some texting about women that can overcome as concrete mixers; let him be enchanted by Wings of Chains hahahaha. Peter got a Hippeastrum bulb to make up with his wife for deserting her for another night of extreme music heh heh

I was a bit tense, after a rush day at work, delay on my earlier train and not pouring but trashing rain on my way to Haarlem. Also I thought the first band would start at 6 PM sharp, but that was only the opening of the doors. Pfew, I would not have wanted to miss one second of BAT, the power trio hosted by two fifths of Municipal Waste and one of the former D.R.I. drummers… No intro, just Ryan Waste getting near a microphone and saying ‘Let’s get rude’ and OFFFFFF! The cross heavy metal – early thrash – rock’n’roll was amazing! The band isn’t in for any gimmick, just a five accord-power house with a great sound, even though I stood at Ryan’s side of the stage and nearly only heard him and some drums. I think a description ‘cross Venom – Motörhead’ is just \m/ some people said ‘very crazy that sound ...... from the depths of hell with a lot of beer .... and a good barbecue’ and knowing The Waste by heart, I can concur :lol: I helped Wanda on stage for the set list:
- Code Rude
- Master of the Skies
- Wild Fever (what a wonderful Motörhead bass line, never mind it’s not a RB :o )
- You Die
- Rule of the Beast (or rle of the beers? Nah, the band members have water on stage; first pit of the night)
- Cruel Discipline (Ryan: ‘this song is about sex… now I have your attention, eh?’ :) )
- Wings of Chains
- Bloodhounds
- Ritual Fool (‘for those who showed up late’ :) )
- Total Wreckage (wreckage of the monitor, so it seems, the band thanks the tech guy instantly, in the middle of the song ;) )
- BAT

Great band, lovely music, nice attitude and not only the band is thankful for this opportunity to play for us ;) From the people on the sides of the stage I can also see it wasn’t just this band that had a great time, several other band members were heavily nodding too ;) We got out for merch and I wanted my set list signed. I got that, along with a picture of me with Nick Poulos. Wanda got the back patch, I got one street patch and two normal ones. Put them in my back pocket, walked out to get to Rotten Sound instead. I didn’t even get to the door of the main hall when drummer Chris patted me on the back saying ‘didn’t you just buy patches? There’s one on the floor’. I grabbed my wallet, bought some more from Ryan before seeing, yeah, my back pocket isn’t as full as intended ;) Thank you Chris, Ryan and Nick for this gesture!! Rotten Sound I handed telephonically, so to speak. I wasn’t in for grind (… during a Napalm tour, go figure >< ) and had a great chat with Kick and Paul Baayens about Asphyx shows and new songs to be recorded! Thanks Paul! Great you took Alicia along ;) We meet again when Asphyx or Thanatos plays!

Misery Index was up next. I forgot a long time ago when I’d last seen them, as I forgot how often I was present during a MI show. The band is tight, yes, but the material just doesn’t stick in my mind nor ears. I like the double vocal approach, as it’s well done and well placed, but the rest doesn’t ring a bell anymore. It even gets boring after a while… A nice three man pit follows and we’re off again to wander Patronaat, the toilet woman or the people hanging around smoking. I wish I stayed there when Eyehategod was playing. The band had a great bluesy sound check but the entire-band-gesture of crossing stoner guitars with grind vocals pissed me off totally (and totally unexpected). It was as if singer Mike Williams was shouting to his long deceased mother in law, totally meaningless brawls and sweeping around as if he tried to fight off Atlas and his globe. What he used before the show I don’t know, but I know he wasn’t in Haarlem last Tuesday. Or am I just an ignorant metal doof that doesn’t understand the pain of being in a stoner band? Het zal wel. It didn’t help Patronaat is totally cashless now, I had my bank card in my other wallet so Wanda and Peter had to get me sodas all night, I felt shy wanting another orange…

Napalm Death… I just love the chaos, the harshness, the message and especially the crowds reacting to the Brits. Tonight wasn’t any different than, say, Alcatraz, Neurotic, Bloodstock or the previous CfMD(s), maybe the set list? We agreed, as Peter knows I work quite early tomorrow, we’re not going to last the entire show and we three also don’t need to do so. Silence is Deafening early in the set, a great chat about the music business for Can’t Play, Won’t Pay and in the (short) time of Scum we head out. We always have a good time with Barney Greenway, no matter if we talk about his accent (lurve that aksent haha), his walks (looovvve his dance mode) and that Napalm Death, 35 years and counting, still is worth a lot. A lot of society critics have gone softer over the years, Napalm Death don’t. Napalm Death will smash you if you’re an ignorant redneck, a white clog, a black tear, some green manalishi, the yellow destroyer or just blue collar bullshitter. We got out, smiling, hiding from rain, going as fast as possible to my beloved VW Golf Mk II diesel, nearly to be blown off the highway, NOT digging aquaplaning at all, but steering hard to get everybody home in one piece. No need for food (even though my stomach rumbles), no need for afpilzen, just a zip of Pfeffie and I’m in dream land. Not the harsh world Shane thinks we’re all in, but in metal dreamland. Seen great bands and shitty ones. Alright, metal and grind and bull. But mostly metal.

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~Guest 220079
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Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:39 am
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 11:30 am 
 

Not going to be long-winded but if you get the chance to see Cult of Luna, you should do so. Phenomenal live and on par with Neurosis, Amenra, and Tribulation.

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:14 pm 
 

Gourmetal with Bodyfarm and Carnation, Effenaar Eindhoven, Sept.12th

What a great combination: metal, beer, barbecue! OK, within social distancing rules, and certainly not the first time (see Mutator on my birthday *cool* , Sundays at dB’s and the Mario’s Metal Meetings; the latter I never went to so far). It has been friggin’ February 27th I last wrote a review! So, naturally, my routine is rusty. I couldn’t find my chained wallet for starters, having to go to the office to print a ticket (for two persons, also a novelty to me), I needed CASH, where are my ear plugs, pen, paper, what denim to wear, ‘oh, Bodyfarm and Carnation playing, so no Dutch shirt needed’ et cetera, et cetera. Wanda found out about this show and was sure at least our bearded friend Erik would bring in Vieze Pim; who else would show up? Can I use the same loyalty voucher for the hotel? Uhm, no, but a call provided a bonus 15 per cent loyalty cut for us ^^ Shorts or pants? Uhm, I thought the wind would break my knee, even though Wanda chose shorts haha.

We got into Eindhoven so early, we had to kill two hours before Erik shouted his hello to us ;) Maarten and Jordan soon showed up, but they apparently were gourmetting in the wrong place, so they mumbled and got to our table moaning. The back side of the Effenaar, where the band busses are parked usually, was boarded up as a private place with wooden garden sets, abundantly filled with pasta, bread and sauces even before we filled in our Covid-notes… You could choose between meat and vegetarian. Of course, gourmetting already takes time and even more when done outside, but this was fun. Most of us made sure the eggs were fried rightfully [when Erik found out it was actually a RAW egg, not a boiled one ^^], so no one would end up with diarrhea or Salmonellosis haha. Beer was only sold in bottles, sodas in tin cans. Inside the big hall there was made room for some 100 visitors and let the band mayhem begin! We had already seen Jonathan, Yarne, Alex, Bram and Quinten between the gourmetters ;) so which band would start? Soon that question was answered, as the Bodyfarm back drop was raised ‘in the right order now,’ Wanda said smiling widely. We had our place on second row and were provided by beers and Jägers by Pim and Erik. The ‘table’ to put our drinks on, had holes in it, precisely big enough to put the shot glasses in LOL so hardly any Jäger was spoiled haha.

Bodyfarm, with new singer Ralph de Boer on bass, started off on killer pace: putting Alex on guitar certainly has been good for the band; it’s as if he’d never done anything else than shred, shred, shred and with the feeling needed to keep Bodyfarm as brutal as always. Great job! Cool to see Quinten as well, it seems totally effortless what he does but it’s tight as a new sack of marbles, direct from the shelf ;) I asked for Alex’ set list between songs and got it:
- Intro
- Dreadlord
- Manhunt
- The Well of Decay (I knew it, the headbangers simply couldn’t sit still anymore. It’s damned complicated to bang your head so fast, sitting on an old fashioned armchair *cool* )
- Slaves of War (Maarten and Pim start some sort of pit, some three women (!) join in before Effenaar crew decided it’s too close together. Well done, to keep the audience alert!)
- Woods of Dismay (Maarten is probably drunk as f*ck, he keeps walking towards the stage. The bastard even kicked Pim’s aluminium chair towards Wanda, hurting her quite a bit! I’m super angry, but the crew had seen it and gives a final warning). The song is dedicated to Thomas, who died a year, a month and a week ago. R.I.P!!
- Angel Reaper (Maarten being thrown out now. Dick!!)
- Last Crusade
- Vortex of Terror (with ‘ons Bodyfarm momentje met Alex’ :) )
- Firing Squad
- Dark Age
- Storming Revolution (‘time to tear this place down’) 8-))
- Unbroken (Ralph asking for a circle pit, so we form several 20 cm2 circle pits LOL). Ralph hands out his set list to Wanda, who instantly is inspired for another tattoo ;)

Time to get ourselves some new patches, the Dreadlord ones are amazing!! Carnation promised new merch (by a Chapel of Abhorrence sell out last Summer, which got me a personally signed ‘thanks, Herman!’ promo photo with it 8-) ). But what happened to the audience? Are you all smokers or something, as Carnation has to start with a half-empty hall? Uhm, soon the audience IS back and to what awesome songs:
- Reincarnation
- Iron Discipline (…all that Maarten lacks ><)
- Plaguebreeder (from the Alcatraz show we were on front row *cool* ) https://youtu.be/AnMHVYUJPrU
- Where Death Lies
- Hellfire
- Hatred Unleashed
- Necromancer
- Sepulcher of Alteration
- Sermon of the Dead (crossed out on the set list)
- Supposed to Rot (Entombed cover the band did often in their early years. It really sounds like Carnation instead of Entombed haha)
- Fathomless Depths
- Encore: Sermon of the Dead

Carnation is ready to be tried for serial murder! The band plays vigorously, sharp, loud and at neck breaking speed; deliver the damned bombs and KILLLLLL! Awesome gig once more! Indeed, I get Jonathan’s set list and we’re all happy, sweaty, Jägered, Becked up and soar-throated. I wasn’t finished yet, as I wanted to add a piece of new lingerie to Erik’s collection… he claims to have over 2,200 shirts but didn’t have a Carnation one yet ^^ Now he does ^^ and looking over the merch table I spot Alex Seegers, ask him ‘do you have a record player?’ “Yes, why?” ‘Here’s one you probably don’t have yet’ (=the new Carnation – Where Death Lies) and put the record in his hands. The following morning Wanda’s FB says ‘still flabbergasted, thank Herrieman from me again’ [picture of LP in hand ;) ], signed Alex Seegers ;) I had been drinking waters in between the Becks and Jägers so I couldn’t wait too long, but I got my Where Death Lies signed by the entire band and we got out. No need to wait for the wardrobe, as it’s closed anyway and we’re not allowed to use the lockers present. OK, off for a little walk but we were still so full of stories we have one final beer at the hotel bar. Breakfast was put in a time slot, but we had all the time to wake up easily, shower before coffee hit in hard. Goooohhh, I needed that coffee badly this morning LOL. We paid for the last drinks and were off home, filling the laundromat twice (had I been this sweaty again? LOL) and order Chinese like I always do after a show. Watching voetbal is gold again, FINALLY the ball rolls again and Feyenoord ends the weekend on # 1 after a 2 – 0 win over Zwolle. Gourmetááááááállll!!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2020 2:54 pm 
 

An Evening with Graceless, Sept 18th Musicon Den Haag; or: Graceless The Covid-19 Sessions, session I

In times of need people tend to get creative, to survive, to keep going and whatnot. Not only to get out of stress, financial malheur or simply boredom, they try to catch every leaf to get on, doing what they like to do or have to do. In the world of live music this isn’t different. Last week a show for some 100 visitors, now only 34 were let in, but at least the bands keep going on. Hardly some sales is more than no sale at all. This night had a surtitle: ‘An Evening with Graceless, live in Musicon, the Covid-19 sessions, session I, September 18th 2020’. We also had to be creative, as the presale of this little event started on an obnoxious time and from FB… but we got help from our bearded friend again! As Wanda showed regret not being able to order tickets, Erik stepped in and within a few minutes I got an e-mail and a request to pay some (what was it? € 22 for the both of us?! Hilarious!) for those tickets. Thank you big time my friend!! Last week I gave him a nice extension of his wardrobe, now the beers would be on me all night. I knew he had to drive home, so it wasn’t that hard to freshen him haha. Melting Eyes would be present too, great. New merch for Graceless to be brought, FB mentioned somewhere. Something with a trucker cap, we’ll see.

Working in Covid-19 times has become easy, known and so productive, it didn’t matter if I’d work on Friday or not… so, naturally, we had all the time in the world, especially after the ticket mentioned ’21.00 uur’. We could eat at home if we liked, but chose to eat in Den Haag. Another part in these crises nowadays: support local entrepreneurs. Parked the car near the B&B, saw a parking accident that no one took claim for (…) and got to Soestdijksekade walking ehh more strolling ;) Wanda remembered where Belinda and us used to eat before a Musicon show so we ended up in Escamp snackbar again. Even before our tasty sateh was delivered, I was hailed by Koen of The Hague Heavy Metal Alliance, who just got kicked out of his wife’s car :lol: . First beer shared tonight, many to follow ;)

Musicon is already open and the first surprise is there already: Graceless has patches saying ‘The Covid-19 The Musicon Sessions' for every visitor, free! Awesome gesture AND awesome picture too!! We walk in, smiling widely, seeing Koen and Jeroen already. Wanda puts her denim and hoodie on second row, as the top row only held one-person-tables, as Jeroen so happily explained. The drinks would have to be ordered in sort of the same way as I’m used of my fraternity days: a card where you can order your drinks on, wave the paper and the bartender comes and fulfills your refreshment wishes. Pay later and especially, one by one, in discipline and order and cashless. OK, it’s not really the same as the Demeter way, but I recognize and appreciate it. No need for a personal € 400 fine for clogging up crowds or € 4,000 for the venue if social distancing isn’t assured. René V is the DJ again, so the music is old school: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Slayer and so on. And, nicely on 20:58: Melting Eyes plugs in and plays their ultra heavy doom-death metal with flair, tooth and nails. They even bring some goose bump moments, when singer Pier grabs us by the ears with his Paul Kuhr-like deep vocals, sometimes combined with old Hypocrisy style highs. Pier can sound pretty sick too! And yes, René already warned us, the hall isn’t full of course, so the sound is thunderously loud simply because there’s not so many people to absorb the volume! Thank Beaufort for the sound quality too! It’s clear as a bell, shiny and glimmering like Little Marie from Saint Dénis ;) Coolest song of the set: Time to Die. The band has some 40 minutes’ worth of music and they use it well. Last song is appropriately called My Final Resting Place and they’re done for now. I do hope they bring in merch next time, Wanda sure wasn’t the only one with a (n old) Melting Eyes shirt, plenty more could be sold if you ask me. I asked Pier later on, after Wanda found a set list some hour later, but he simply said ‘oh yeah, stupid us, we’ve forgotten to put the box in the car and now… nothing’ heh heh, yeah right ^^

In the meantime we met Vieze Pim again, Koen had brought his oldest friend Rob and Graceless members roam the venue with their equipment, handing out thanks to the ones present. Not just the awesome patches, but also I can explain the surtitle of tonight: The band has handed out menus like fluffy restaurants sometimes do, explaining what is to be expected.
Starters
Melting Eyes

Appetizers
Lugdunum Batavorum
Ruins of Desolation

Main Course
We Will be Gods
Shadowlands
Where Vultures Know Your Name
Revenge Us
Sumerian Flames
Iron Tears

Dessert
Embrace the Rain
Warpath
Nine Days of Mourning

Recommended Beverage for an Optimal Experience of
This Evening’s Performance
Jack Daniel’s with Coca Cola

Back print: This performance is brought to you by
Kreft – Rhythm Guitar and vocals
Verhaar – Drums
Aptroot – Bass
Brusse – Rhythm and Lead Guitar

Graceless Plays ‘note some guitar brand, pick brand yada yada’
Booking & Promotion
Annie Hammer logo, Raw Skull Recordz logo
EXCELLENT!! WELL DONE! This is a well appreciated form of creativity, to make something of a night like this one, wanting to stand out, showing care for your own presentation AND fans! Chapeau!! After three, four songs I finally found out the band actually DOES follow their own menu, no need to scribble anymore :lol: \m/

The band is going moonwrapped, to finally be able to play for audience again… audience freaking out as they should do when such fire is spit over our heads, such vigor to show we’ve survived so far and that there actually IS a future for live events, albeit by rules, of course, but those are doable. Remco mentions ‘this feels like a warm bath to us’ and he’s right. We feel warmed by the smiles on stage and off, people having shudders to know the world hasn’t ended by a friggin’beer named virus. With approval from organizer René they get to do one encore and it’s KILLER: Die on Demand!! The band also has some personal thanks ‘some things will never change, like that big teddybear Jeroen on front row’ headbang *cool* \m/ Even though we have our menus, Wanda gets Jasper’s set list and thanks him on her own way ;) The venue empties quickly, but not before our wallets have become a hell lot lighter and our denims fuller: not only the Musicon Sessions patch, but also new artwork, a LS shirt, two trucker caps, set lists, stickers and another surprise: Marc hands me patches he thought I’d never had so far HA HA I can order from Australia as well, dude \m/ but I also have a little surprise cooking: I turn 50 in 2022 and wonder if it’d be possible… yeah if a BBQ is there too ;) we keep in touch, friends! The bartender sees us leave last and has arranged a taxi for us. Thanks a lot, as I have a wound on my foot I don’t walk that fast ;) and we’re off to great beds and… no breakfast. I must have missed to fill in a timeslot for breakfast, so we leave with just coffee downed and not wait for over two hours for some tiny baguettes.

Now I must start my thanks list: Erik Hendriks for the tickets, internet for the payment and hotel, Den Haag for a nice stroll, Koen for emptying my first beer, Pim for showing up, Melting Eyes for a great set of doom-death, Musicon for the sound, the volume and the HJ (La Trappe White is excellent for Wanda too ^^); Graceless in general, Remco in person, Jasper for the set list, Björn for signing and Marc for the patches. Thanks to the bar personnel and the taxi driver. Thanks to Hail of Bullets for easing my drive. Thank metal!!

Note: within 3 minutes after Wanda posted her picture of our haul, she got a personal ‘thank you both for showing up’ from Remco himself

Edit, some hour later: Oh yeah, totally forgot I had the Melting Eyes set list:
- Rise from Below
- Beyond these Rotten Wastes
- Creation Undone
- Time to Die
- Embrace the Madness
- Bringer of War
- My Final Resting Place

Thanks again, Pier and Bart for signing it ;)

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:37 pm 
 

Graceless in P60 Amstelveen, Sept. 25th

Soon after the annunciation of the Musicon sessions Graceless got an opportunity to play P60 in, sort of, a same setting. It wasn’t such a bugger to get tickets, but the information on the P60 website bugged greatly: ‘order drinks via a phone number, no toilet visits and no walking during the show’. Why the ffkk don’t they do it the Musicon way, or are they too friggin’scared to admit they don’t have personnel enough to do so? OK, we drive with the two of us so I won’t drink any alcohol, so I won’t need the loo that hard, but still. We don’t have many problems with the normal restrictions nowadays, but this isn’t a live gig anymore, this is pure fear. Or mismanagement. Give it a name, I don’t care, I want live metal. ‘Use your head and thén bang it’, might become my motto ;)

The P60 website still wasn’t out of surprises, as they ‘asked’ us not only to be on time, but also ‘earlier, so you can have a nice drink in the café’? Uhm, isn’t the café a bit small for that? OK, they restriction you couldn’t go to the bathroom AT ALL wasn’t so harsh, they urged us to use the toilet ‘with brains, between the bands’. Kindergarten show? Come on, it’s getting stupid this way. Graceless themselves had a bit of a joke as well, as they announced Björn wouldn’t join at first (his mother is vulnerable enough for him not to infect her worse, I later heard from Marc). Wanda’s FB Messenger said ‘he’ll show up, even if he has to cycle to Amstelveen’ :lol: All parts together, yeah Björn did show up, of course, but only by his own car, with said reason. Pfft, it would be a hard night to begin with if Remco had to do all guitars tonight ;) So, we got really in time to the P60 café, they weren’t even fussy I paid our first drinks in cash. Wanda has issues with the Paulaner wheat beer present, the previous time (Coven) she wanted 0,0 beer but got a mixture of 0 and 5,5 per cent beers throughout the gig >< . Chocomel it became, I suggested she’d fill it up with Bailey’s but that was also a no-go hihihi. When the stairs to the venue opened, we rushed inside for a great spot and ended up… first row once more \m/ We also brought our hoodies (wardrobe closed, warm for the walk back to the car), little bag with clean shirt (you never know) and 4 different types/volumes of bottles of water. As we hate doing stuff by phone alone, we’d figured we’d bring our own. No one made a fuss about the water, so that’s an idea for next time. The beers that baptized my new denim are unknown to me, but they’re only drops and smell of a special brand beer I’m not familiar with. Hey, spray your beer somewhere else or just drink it. If it came from the balcony or from right beside me I will never know.

We’ve sat for about fifteen minutes when Mouflon entered stage. Both of us had no idea what to expect, but we got the full cannon ball on gun powder bash of bassy doom-death! We were sitting straight in front of the bass stack, so we had to deal with the full blast :roll: Like last week, the venue was ‘filled’ by some 100 visitors and this band has A LOT OF BASS haha. It was loud, Louder, LOUDEST, heavy, thumping, dark, doomy death metal. The band has a bit of Coffins, Hooded Menace and as Wanda noticed, some (old) Bolt Thrower as well. Singer RJ has a lot of expression in him, singing in anger, frustration, bile, dirt, mistrust and whatnot. The band needs a few songs to loosen themselves up physically; RJ has an angry walk from the beginning. RJ announced the band has new material up its sleeve and play new material. Not that we know the difference between old and new sheepdeath, but keep an eye out. After the show all members raised their instruments to thank the P60 crew and ZwareMetalen.com for organizing this, along with the bar, the cook, Graceless and the tax service (? :lol: ). As Wanda went downstairs for, say, patches and toilet, she came back huffing and puffing… she’d forgotten my wallet holds plenty of cash… she only brought a fiver… nice woman behind the counter, so Wanda sent me downstairs to get some stuff from the band. She asked me if my copy of Devastations was sealed, as she was afraid people would steal CDs when she was making pictures or whatever. I reassured her I wasn’t in for theft and returned to Wanda with my hands full and my wallet some lighter ;)

I might choose to sew the Mouflon patch over the Disquiet one, as the band went downhill from the second song on. We met half the band (mostly Fabian and Sean) sitting in the bar, I’d like to see if the band would play so fluently as their beers went in… uhm no. First song was festive death metal, but we noticed we’re not too high on the American-sounding vocals… The twin leads have a lot of Nevermore (or was it Maiden after all?) in them, but not so prominent as Loomis & Co. used to do. The drum sound is hopeless too. I thought ‘playing cards in a kids bike wheel’, Wanda’s description was ‘hailstone on glass roof’ but to me that’s too much HA HA HA. Note that the Slayer-, Metallica- and Soilwork-influences are maybe even too big to be kept calling death metal. MA mentions ‘melodic thrash’ dùh. Again, thanks to ZwareMetalen.com, bass player Frank mentions he’s been a ZM member for 17 years… Abruptly a mosh song enters… we’re done with Disquiet. We were in Amstelveen for Graceless; and Metal God Thanked they delivered! Björn present as if nothing happened, no cycling sweat to be seen ;) The band has a brand new and huge backdrop to show, not hung upside down for starters ^^ The band was announced by another ZM member, also responsible for the P60 metal bookings, he told us P60 will continue to celebrate 20 years of ZM by genre nights: next month a thrash night, then a black one followed by a doom mass. No hint of band names, but we’ll keep an eye out for annunciations regarding Amstelveen metal. It’s only an hour drive, after all.

Back to Graceless: the same Hail of Bullets – Berlin – like intro is followed by a sharp, heavy, loud and enthusiast set. It’s fun to watch your friends have fun on stage, interact as social distancing allows, play tightly their great music. The set list consists of:
- Lugdunum Batavorum
- Ruins of Desolation (Remco: ‘P60 je maakt me trots’ :cool: “P60 you make me proud” :cool: )
- We Will Be Gods
- Shadowlands (I can hardly sit still anymore. Not because of all the water I drank, but from pure THRILL!)
- Where Vultures Know Your Name
- Reteliation (haha, spelling contest lost HA HA)
- Revenge Us
- Iron Tears of Mortsel (Vieze Pim does a ‘sitting circle pit’, pity the chair he’s on :) )
- Embrace the Rain
- Warpath
- Nine Days
- Encore: Legions of the Fallen

Graceless has a great time performing for us. The sound is excellent, albeit Remco has a strange twang to his output (loose contact?), the volume is OK and, maybe after an angry text to the bar ‘I don’t want to order yet, but the strobos are fucking killing me’ the lights are doable too. During Disquiet I think I ducked under my cap half the set, that’s no fun. This gig has ‘normal’ lighting for once. Those lovely fluent riffs, played bluntly and still chopping into necks like a hot knife through fresh cream butter… Remco’s despair, seeking revenge and having pain through his lyrics/grunts is great to hear AND to watch. The joy, the interaction, the smiles, all TOP!! It’s so clear to see the band members have been playing together, they know exactly what they all do and when, accuracy like an atomic clock and STILL the fun on stage. Next time I’ll bring my Xenomorph, Nailgun Massacre and Soulburn stuff to sign… I might even put Embrace the Rain on my musical funeral list… it thrills us both! Then Warpath, what an explosion this song brings! Again, the band has one minute left but gets their request granted to play one encore, also thanking P60 and crew for this opportunity, thanking the sound crew, the fans (big smile towards us from at least Jasper, Björn and Remco :cool: ) and their own band members for great times to pass and to come.

As we both have about a ton of Graceless merch, we thank Marc behind the counter, one last loo visit and we’re off. Not before seeing Amsterdam by night unvoluntarily :roll: we head home with some small road sausage and afpilzen. Wanda’s gone after a mere Weizener, I’m thirsty for HJ and see FC Groningen make a fool of themselves defensively against a sharp FC Twente team… bed time. I wonder what will be the next metal evening for us, as Das Oktober Metalfest, The Exploited and Doc’s Metal Cruise all have been postponed and the friggin’beer virus has cheated us all… but not tonight. Tonight we had doom, fluffy thrash and excellent DEATH METAL Kreft style and thrilling joy of METAL.

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 2:13 pm 
 

Graceless – sit in concert Dynamo Eindhoven, Nov. 29th

This day we were supposed to see Destruction bash Dynamo once more. The band had co-headlined Dynamo Open Air with Stryper so many years ago, now they would reinvoke the curse on Eindhoven with Warbringer and Crisix. No such tour, as Schmier stated about a month ago, no covid-proof tour of such international scale would be possible. KUT. The Low Lands have been totally blocked when Dynamo announced a small gig was announced anyway: Graceless! To the day, Remco’s FB Messenger mentioned, even the band wasn’t told if it would go on, with closed bars or even bigger distancing… so we go anyway. Just because we do. Period. Bring in food and drinks as it’s an early gig… I thought it was appropriate to book a hotel and take a morning off, but the show was a lot earlier than I anticipated… 2 PM instead of 8… OK fine. As we had only a hint what would happen, we armed ourselves with liquor, beer, chocomel and cozy foods [cheese, olives, garlic, sausage and so on]. We’d back in the hotel so early we’d put our mouths back to corona kilos haha. But the hotel has hired a girl in her practice term, changing my booking back to full payment? One person only? No breakfast? Parking outside? Not in a million years, lady! By phone it wasn’t clear enough, she said, maybe my iKolereding isn’t working properly (anymore)? Coming to the Sandton it was all cleared in minutes, annoying red-green-blinking-proximity sensor or not ><

At Dynamo we soon met Erik H, Dave P and Reem, but I had left the lukewarm Veltins at the hotel. Cold HJs it became haha even though I had to run to get back in time. Hey, there are Lange Pim, Vieze Pim, Koen and Gerrit as well. Fun! The first band would start in mere minutes, they’re called Plague [ https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Plague/3540454231 ] and hail from Tilburg. Just between two chords I heard the singer say ‘prost’ and opened a Bahvaria on stage, I raised my HJ and did the same ;) He heard me and said ‘the kind of people they let in nowadays’ ^^ Plague plays sometimes technical, sometimes blunt but melodic death metal; mix old Kataklysm, some Lamb of God during shouts, Horgh on drums and sometimes Paul Kuhr-like vocals. Singer Joeri van Riel clearly has ‘anyway’ als filler, he mentions it some 15 times in 20 minutes :) Their best song is Instant Inferno of their EP Dead is the Day. The song deals with the Aussie forest fires, includes a cough as a part of the lyrics ;) Song for Crash: ‘Erection Divine’ haha. Joeri throws a Bahvaria into the audience, saying ‘wait a second opening it’ and I hear some 8 cans of beer opened instantly haha. Hissss :) The song is called Intestine Harvest ;) But with the Pims around, Erik drinking my HJ I am out of beer when the band is done. Erik suggests me to get beers together, possibly closer by Dynamo than the Appie at the station ;) It was the same one but with a shortcut :) Wanda was to be found at the Plague merch stand ;) We got back in time for the main attraction: Graceless. We were also happy the Dynamo crew handed out ear plugs (of the good brand ^^) as Remco announced he wanted to blow up Dynamo as loud as he could ^^ I got Björn’s set list (thank you!!)
- Lugdunum Batavorum
- Ruins of Desolation
- We Will Be Gods
- Shadowlands
- Where Vultures Know Your Name
- Iron Tears of Mortsel
- Embrace the Rain
- Warpath
- Nine Days of Mourning
- Encore, not on the set list: Die on Demand

Waauuww! This band is soooo good, cold shivers and warm feelings fight their way up to my tear duct… Heavy as a steamroller, blunt as a butcher’s knife after retirement, guillotine solos, grinding drums and exceptionally well placed grunts… yeah this is old school death metal we like best. Björn even does a Hendrix during Die on Demand, playing with his teeth; hopefully the amp is well grounded HA HA HA. We both buy a hoodie as it was nearly impossible to get online (…) and show all kinds of mutual music the Graceless members combine: Marc reacts to the Xenomorph CD ‘that old shit, still playing?’ and bursts out laughing. I got some smiles when I showed my Nailgun Massacre stuff to Remco and Jasper, all gets nicely scribbled on ^^ Fanboy. Fangirl. Yeah, we’re definitely not the only fans Graceless has, as Erik told us he’d been buying a whole collection of Graceless shirts, now the hoodie; Vieze Pim probably will work on some videos to be shot (no planning revealed yet ;) ) and Lange Pim thanks me again for colder HJ than he brought himself hihihi. Coming to the hotel it’s not even time for voetbal yet, so we open up Koen’s Corona bottle, our chips bag, cheese box, Bailey’s bottle and choco pack and celebrate another great gig. I made sure I invited all I knew to my 50th birthday (in 2022, see if that was clear enough HA HA HA) and leave Eindhoven after a great breakfast. Where Death Metal Knows Where We Will Return To!

likes (members) and previews (guests sign in) on https://metal-tavern.proboards.com/thre ... o-nov-29th
**reaction, few days later**
Oh, few days in, found my Plague set list:
- Joining the Dead
- Tomb for the Living
- Dead is the Day
- Instant Inferno
- Satan
- Chaotic
- Erection Divine
- Intestine Harvest
- Brothel of Death
- Mass Intoxication
- Nameless to the Void
- Bubonic Masterpiece

Turned out Wanda only bought Graceless patches for her couch quilt ;)

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Fri May 21, 2021 1:32 pm 
 

By lack of live possibilities in most of the world, here's the live stream Graceless will start in an hour: https://youtu.be/hzaqhnoaWzk
If I have some time tomorrow, I'll let you know how I experienced it.

Review: Graceless – Vocid19 stream from Gebr.deNobel – May 21st, 2021

What do you do, live music freak as I am, with a worldwide pandemic and every country / state has its own limitations or lack of comprehension? Uhm, we’ve seen some sit-in concerts, who were awesome, but since November zilch. No terrace, no café, no live anything. In the meantime Wanda and me not only saved a truckload of money by NOT going anywhere, our house has definitely changed since those 14 months… carpet out, laminate in. Old wiggly bed out, new sweet soft bed entered (hence my much better sleep since about a week ^^) We can only sew so many patches on a single denim, so I’ve started to upgrade my new bed sheets with ancient shirts. I’ve started my 18th denim already… Get into the garden? No, too windy ;) The preparations to the Graceless live stream were simple enough… beers cold, some snacks, good food to enter the evening, Sgt.Pfeffie’s Blackened Livers Club off CD, then Carnation to light up the mood, laptop installed downstairs… it would begin at 8:30 PM.

Along the stream there would be a chat box, just like the Asphyx CD presentation last January. First reaction: ‘duurt lang’ LOL (“takes too long”). We wanted to use the screen of the laptop to the band, not the chat, so when the intro started I maximized the YT thingie and let the chat pass by. The start was like an old fashioned VHS tape, scrambled like it was highly taped over ^^ before We Will Be Gods entered. First notice: with only a band and 4 cameras Gebr.deNobel is a lot bigger than I remembered, so far the ‘eagle eye vision camera’ stood away from the stage. Second notice: the lyrics are way better to follow but third notice: some mistakes in riffing or solos sound a lot harsher than when we’re belly-tied to the stage, ear plugs in, sweat in the nostrils,… Second song tonight was Malignant Seed, of which I thought it would be a new one >< uhm, I must definitely play the split 7” with Revel in Flesh more often, as this song originates from it >< Whoah wat a great, fast song! The rest of the set list:
- Lugdunum Batavorum – OK now we really miss the interaction with the band and the volume… but we think it’s still cool. And… we don’t need testing or a vaccine to experience it anyway. Pfft, the fuss going on these days in the EC is abysmal to any thinking person. Never mind privacy, just push the needle in >< OK end intermezzo, this is not politics ;)
- Shadowlands – with the CD cover getting the VHS treatment :)
- Embrace the Rain – with Darkthrone-ish misty forest film intro ;)
- Warpath – such a great, fast song. I thought of an ancient Dutch rhyme with a fast Jelle in it, takes too long to explain ;) – nice Stalinorgel intro
- Revenge Us – I hope this song is a stayer for future set lists… awesome riffing, great rolls, great (small but clearly visible) interaction on stage, really cool chugga-chugga-faster-faster song. This is from the split with Grond and hardly played live so far.
- Iron Tears of Mortsel – cool to find Asphyx-, Bolt Thrower- and Winter-influences once more
- …this is it? Already? 42 minutes gone in a beer or three, gone in seven eyesores?? The finger food wasn’t even halfway in!

Still, short or not, this was great. I do hope this stream will stay on YT for a long time, instead of only one day, or else: enjoy it! https://youtu.be/hzaqhnoaWzk
I just hope there will be more possible soon, hopefully without much noses in air about privacy, not working QR-codes, falsifications, fake news, side effects or poisonous needs for money. I understand prices will go up to make up for lost income, but don’t overdo it. Just let the bands play, venues open, food along, cold beer and loads of decibels!! We need metal!

Reacting can be done by members (sign in) or guests (register) via https://metal-tavern.proboards.com/thre ... br-denobel


Last edited by herrieman72 on Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:30 pm 
 

Graceless – Reopening of the metal gigs – GebrDeNobel, Leiden, June 5th

Before plunging into death metal, I’d like to dedicate this review to an unknown 7-year old girl that died in a freak accident in Leiden, combining a family on bikes, a taxi opening his door, the girl fell when avoiding the door and was run over by a bus; when we were in the city. R.I.P. little angel, of whom I’ll never hear the name and she’ll never enjoy music like we do.

‘Metal is back on the rise’ was my first thought when Wanda told me about this gig. Add ‘finally’ to the description as well. We’d go to the home city of Graceless once more and probably be joined by all visitors of last year’s sit in concerts ;) We knew a few things before hand: Erik would be there, CallKoen also, Kick, Eus and Big Jeroen would show up. We knew it would be sold out, we knew it would be another sitting show, but also had our predicaments: everything digital. The website of GebrDeNobel mentioned ‘all beverages must be ordered by QR, paid by iDeal and then delivered to the mini table’ between us. We knew we’re fanboy and fangirl once more. We knew we weren’t allowed to sit next to each other, no matter if it’s known Wanda and me share more than just a drink before the show >< We also knew I’d be in the car presented as Chlorineboy, as I like to swim before heading out to a show (why do I think of Boltfest now? ;) ) What was unanticipated did happen now: my beloved VW Golf Mk II Diesel has died. I heard some scratching, gurgling sound when shifting gears and thought ‘gear box’. Tom first thought it was ‘probably only a thru-axle’; that would have been a € 50 job. Nope. It was the gear box after all. So, 32 years old, 460.000 km through thick fog and beautiful weather, for metal and job, she’s gone now. The Black Beauty will ride no more. I miss her already.

Entering Leiden in the VW Golf Mk IV Diesel we checked in early (or it would have to be dealt digitally ><) so we could do anything we liked in the sun. Market around, several streets blocked by police (see remark above), what do we get to the hotel with? WC-brushes (and we’re NOT heading for a Gutulax show :) ), puzzle books, another hand full of patches and new underwear. Go figure LOL All we hadn’t done was eating, so we got back to the market and looked for any closing shop… cold cod and plaice for a fiver, GOOD! Beer time, we got to Lazaru’s and the first Grolsch made the fish float ;) Wanda wanted to be on top row so half an hour before the doors went open, we were there. Fill in a form, no need for a test or negative result, pfew. We need not to run, as we were ‘guided’ to our place… front row, center stage of course! Seeing Big Jeroen was awkward in the sense that we were forbidden to speak to each other, need to sit down? Go kick someone, guys, we haven’t seen each other in a year, COME ON!! Smoke machine on, lights rolling… here’s GRACELESS!! The band doomed in with Lugdunum Batavorum – why is Björn’s guitar nearly inaudible? We don’t bother too much, as we HAVE LIVE MUSIC ONCE MORE!!! It meant so much to us to finally be able to hear it at proper volume, see the men so close [and yet far away ‘enough’ :| ] , bang our heads together, raise our fists as one, outshout an entire choir (of the Damned? :) ) and just FEEL that bass! Badass!! Of course, we got set lists:
- Lugdunum Batavorum (the beer app doesn’t work, not with Nobel’s Wifi, not with a personal hotspot, or on the bank application I don’t dare to wait so long ><)
- Malignant Seed (need to get us merch!)
- Slashed and Served (music mix is improved now)
- Where Vultures Know My Name (still no working app, I give up. Just head to the bar with a waffelzakkie and order.)
- Ruins on Desolation (I now declare Graceless ‘excellent cross of doom, death, desolate, destructive death metal’! \m/
- Retaliation of the Wicked (my personal bro-moment with Kreft again \m/ )
- We Will Be Gods (showing the band the shirt I bought for Wanda)
- ‘are you ready to die, to die on my behalf or by my hand? Just die, Die on Demand!’ – the volume is so high now the mic stand breaks LOL
- Embrace the Rain
- Shadowlands (this morning I heard RawSkull Recordz is going to rerelease the album with new artwork and bonus tracks!! Kudos!)
- Lock Stock
- Metal Tears ‘of Mooooooooortselllll’ ;)
- Revenge Us
- Nine Days of Mourning (encore)
- Warpath – I need to mosh! I need a pit! Such a killer track!!

Still, the beer app won’t work and many leave when the band is finished. Bar personnel is still divided in ‘let them have a good time’ and ‘watch out, we don’t want to be fined if inspected’- at least make sure you copy the Musicon way of ordering beers!!! We were supposed to go to Lazaru’s as well, as it closes at ten tonight, but the stories were so good we were thrown out of DeNobel at ten ourselves ;) Not before fanboying of course, without asking I got a set list, Kreft’s guitar plectrum and Jasper’s bass pick. I had brought my final Nailgun Massacre CD to sign, found out that singer Corpsechucker doesn’t frequent death metal shows anymore. Thanks for the tip, Jasper, now I know it has no use to drag any NGM stuff around during Graceless shows ^^

Coming outside was fun too. The band clearly didn’t want to leave so soon and we were in no rush, as it’s literally only a 4 minute walk to the hotel. The goodbyes were warm. We’d brought HJ, crisps and grapes for our own little after party and talked way into the night about the awesomeness of this band, this gig and the sniffy reactions from some of the Nobel people. Now I can tell anyone who’s interested, it is confirmed, Graceless will play Westwoud on June 11th, 2022, in De Schalm on my 50th birthday party. Our German friends already mentioned ‘we don’t want to miss this’ so my American friends are welcome too. Good. Details will follow. This is a band to follow nevertheless, so keep your horns and cups up, fill your ears with plugs and boisterous volume, arms raised and the esophagi warmed up! DEATH METAL DELUXE!

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:00 am 
 

Schoonebeek Deathfest IV, feat. Messiah, Exhumed, Burial Remains, De Boo, Schoonebeek, Sept.4th

If you manage to get four of the only forty earliest birds tickets, it means you feel at your place at a festival. I thought I could say that about Dynamo Metalfest, but that line up of their anniversary turned hopeless after the first annunciation... Schoonebeek Deathfest did it better, so to say: Exhumed, Burial Remains and one illegible, already mentioned in September 2019.The Westfriesian SDF crew is present in 2020, earliest tickets #5, 6, 7 and 8. Cabin ticket present too, even though it’s quite some more expensive this time. Swoah, divide it by four and it’s only one less HJ per person in that weekend :s

But how to keep up with friggin’a year and a half without live metal? Playing live DVDs for the feel of it (not loud enough), short city trips, home upgrading, gardening and lonely barbecues? WE NEED METAL and after a fierce lockdown we’re bound to hit the stage hard as possible! Long it was unsure if even Schoonebeek would be held at all, but it turned a bit lighter halfway June. July 1st most (horeca) restrictions were lifted, would events bigger than a hundred be permitted, finally? I got worried I lost my touch of writing…. We thought. Halfway July the Dutch government is still iffy about events, wanting named tickets, mail addresses present, seated visitors, five feet apart (make it six for a death fest), no shouting, no cheering and probably no beering as well. KUTDERDEKUT. In these lights it was postponed to Sept.4th 2021. Would the 2020 edition mow out the American bands, the 2021 edition would bring not only Exhumed but also the CD presentation of Morta Skuld. Presented by Sven Gross.

We thought.

Exhumed and Morta Skuld would be replaced by… ASPHYX! GRACELESS!! Messiah is still on, so we might get some CD presentation after all. I don’t think we head out to Switzerland for the actual CD presentation, as we don’t think Fleshcrawl would be there and to be honest, no matter how much we love the MUSIC of Fleshcrawl, the sight of Fleshcrawl will be forever without our big friend Sven. Every time I see a Fleshcrawl shirt, patch or CD, I think of my dear friend. R.I.P. ; this review is for him, of course. I miss his bear hug so much! ;-( Burial Remains made it touchable by recording As Blood Rains from the Sky in a two-song-tape edition; I have the tape with me to get it signed. See if Sven’s beloved Dani will show up…
Another incertainty: will we hear from Stip? Or should we bring Thirza instead? Will we be tested negative or what? Both Bram and Thirza don’t have their driving license yet, let alone a car… Testing is a pain in the *ss. Period. No matter if the lovely medical personnel tells us only the throat part is ‘a little inconvenient’… forget the friggin’ mail bull, the not found QR code, not able to swap with my code (I’ve been vaccinated, is it true I don’t need to test?? I don’t know anymore)… ughhh. We had a celebratory beer, so to speak, when we both tested negative [again hustling with the damned codes, but swoah ]. Off we go! I thought it would be renamed Schoonebeek Cuddlefest, as soooo many people wanted to see some other person again… forget the mess on F1 in Zandvoort, happy to miss that obnoxious event by FARRRR. 75,000 people? Superspreader event, I think. Käthe is one we’d have to cuddle most, as she cooked up a surprise for her friends Uwe and Marvin (the latter also present in Zürich, last year March, no Napalm Hammer that time :( ) Our Pitfest neighbors Fred and Marlies already spotted before unpacking the car, beertime!! We decided to eat first, have one slim beer and off to the terrain. We thought. Wanda needed help with the QR, but I was denied entry FOR NOT SHOWING ID!!! Isn’t the QR from Testing for Access personal AND checked?! GODVERDOMME I haven’t driven fucking 168 km for this!! No exceptions, all I had to do was go back to the cabin. Good thing was, I met Coen vdG and Henk on the way back, so my first HJ was FACT! Coming back, steaming, new Fleshcrawl shirt on, Marvin already KO ( :roll: ) I found out I already missed Demored to begin with, nearly entirely missing Mouflon by hugging so many people ^^ Wanda soon found Erik Hendriks and his smile was so wide he could hardly turn on the terrain anymore LOL (we’d been fixing his denim the last two weeks). He was so happy! By that time I had 12 cups in my hands and had not picked up one single token/beer so my first round was a multi-shared one ;) The cup deposit system was like Wãldrock years and backstage people walked around with old Pitfest cups Maarten needed one ^^ I also picked up the Sven Gross tribute shirts and the festival ones, as I hardly could remember if I’d really ordered and paid them. I must have, as I got them without extra fuss. Pfew, thanks a lot! The Sven Gross banner was beautiful, really!!! What a great tribute to our big friend! We did spot (and expressed condolences) to Dani and Fleshcrawl drummer Stefan Hanus, that was good too. Getting grabbed by the neck by Husky was special too :cool: and Martin exclaiming ‘Herrieman! I’ve missed you so much!’ gave my goose bumps. Least I could do was to invite him to my anniversary…he might show up… We. Are. At. The. Right. Place!!!

In the meantime Burial Remains set stage on fire. This is old school, Old School OLD SCHOOL DEATH METAL!! What a murderous sound they have, so full and dirty! I was sorry not to be near stage to commemorate Sven by thundering As Blood Rains From the Sky as loud as I could, somehow I didn’t recognize the tune soon enough >< Also, my hands never were much fuller, 4 shirts, 3 beers, camera, paper to write… I was sheer packed! Next up was Graceless, we dumped our shirts in the cabin and went for them! Totally blown away again, this band also gets better every time we see them. The response on Graceless was as warm and fanatic as any band would dream of! I couldn’t care I didn’t have the set list, as this band simply can play any tune they fancy and wind the entire audience MADDDD!!! So good! I also got to talk to Remco about my own anniversary next year, so all lights are green now!! My presents today also got better: Bram bought me not only a (Russian) Hypocrisy back patch, but also every patch on any band we saw together!! Wanda was awarded a Necroceros back patch, thanks a million matey!! Soo highly appreciated! René and John gave us beers and hugs, Maarten and Bram were soo thrilled, fill all those names in…

From that moment on my view got a bit blurrier, as did my pictures on my camera. Somehow I managed to spoil many Graceless-, Messiah- and some Asphyx-pictures by changing YET another setting on the darn thing >< but thanks to Belinda, Bram, Iris (hey, Bernd ist auch da! Schön! I made them meet Andrée and Käthe and the typical German accents were spread widely, as a few other Germans joined their ranks :) . Messiah was a lot sharper than in Lichtenfels, so to say. Roger had presented us Extreme Cold Weather patches and enough stickers to cover our entire beloved VW Golf Diesel Mk IV ^^ I thought they nearly played ECW in its entirety, but I must have missed at least a few tunes hihi. Of course, they have Fracmont to promote and they did well. Their sound was ancient old school death metal: loud, bock-heavy, all polar bears scrutinized but still sharp as a claw near a seal haha. I did wish I’d eaten some, the sateh chicken was long gone and it didn’t help Wanda kept giving me her leftover Leffe Blond and Franciskaner Weissbier… but I couldn’t linger… my need for Asphyx kept me up somehow… Like a heavy armored slowly moving rhinoceros sitting in titanium plated tank destroying all human being with unstoppable power. Hint of the set list:
- The Quest for Absurdity
- Botox Implosion (including mad cackle laughter ^^)
- The Nameless Elite
- Death The Brutal Way
- Asphyx (Forgotten War, both Wanda and me have square miles of goose bumps!!)
- Deathhammer
- It Came from the Skys
- Molten Black Earth
- Wasteland of Terror (Paul’s speakers blow up >< surprisingly fast another one is found)
- Scorbutics
- Forerunners of the Apocalypse (now it’s Alwin’s gear doing stuff it shouldn’t)
- Necroceros
https://youtu.be/hFOyi97iQe4 Look at those banners! :o :cool:
- The Rack
- Last One on Earth
Nearly 35 years in business, no trace of wearing off, right?! Apart from the technical difficulties, this was some show!! We loved the raw death metal brought surpremely! The doom parts thundered, the fast parts didn’t lose a single turn (Tarzan turn anyone? No need for F1 now, this is already F*CK/NG LOUD AS IT SHOULD BE!) and the band is having so much fun, to be finally released back into the wild, the wild pit rages on, the hairs sweep wildly, the arms swing violently… live metal as it should be. AAA++ show, AAA++ festival, AAA++ atmosphere, great weather, what else do you need, I’d ask? I have no answer. I have had friggin’full blastin’death metal all day. In the car, ranging from Exciter to Entrails, Bolt Thrower and Benediction, and the bands were all good. Who cares Abrupt Demise couldn’t show up due to some broken bones? I didn’t…

The night was short, that’s no surprise. I needed two alarm clocks and six coffees to wake up but I did. It helped I saw near-zombie Maarten come alive after a much loved coffee and even Heiko (see Graceless in Recklinghausen-review) tipped in. Belinda had a ghastly experience with the now-a-lot-lower-in-my-esteem-Erwin and that even infuriated Käthe… but it was, overall, a blast to be back on metal grounds. Death metal to the fullest. Friendships renewed. New love possibly? Marvin had miraculously recovered enough to tell someone well known to us he positively likes/liked her, see what happens. Haha even Käthe asked what me and Wanda would say’bout this little romance, ‘oh well, she’s grown up enough’ ;) and positively: WE RETURN! We now have booked a day earlier, just to cruise Schoonebeek itself (not Klazienaveen nor Maya and Willy like last time :) :0 :p ) and have peace there. It's a great town, I've heard.

Tickets for 2022 already for sell via www.schoonebeekdeathfest.nl/tickets Early birds gone, group tickets cheaper than regular ones. I've got a tenner discount this way \m/
The new edition will take place Sept. 3rd, 2022, feat. Exhumed, Necrot and Morta Skuld. More t.b.a. of course. We're in!!

Death Metal the Only Necroceros unforgetting the War!! Death Metal!

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:46 am 
 

Harnbarg Metalfest II, Oct. 22nd and 23rd, Hoogenweg Hardenberg, feat. Slaughterday, Burial Remains, Dauthuz

The first Harnbarg Metalfest ( https://metal-tavern.proboards.com/thre ... enweg-june for guests or members, see top of this page) was as cozy and chaotic as no one could ever have accounted for: only tickets to be sold at the door, 25 tickets sold, in a hazy bar, illegible logos, no merch but festival beer mats, somewhere in the middle of nowhere on Overíeíessels plããttelaand. The second edition would be a little bit more organized, as it would hold two days and 13 bands! I thought I had a reservation for this weekend, but by hell couldn’t find it anymore and panicked a bit… booking dot helped, but within five minutes I had a nasty e-mail from B&B Margriet: ‘I think you’d be better off in another facility’. I called and she said ‘no need for you to stink in bed’till at least three PM and you better check the campings nearby’ HUH WHAT?? Instant headache, that’s for sure, but it didn’t take long to know some sort of reason behind it: never mind the type of money they bring, but going to a metalfest is a sure hint to obscenity, roughness, loudness and anti-… what again? Oh yeah, region Hardenberg is Bible Belt! I should have remembered Harvest Metalfest 2005 (links lost to MRU, Nile, Unleashed, Behemoth). Wanda had the top idea to contact organizer Gertie and he reacted ‘you can kip at a B&B some 500 m away on the Friday, but the Saturday the Hardenbergerveld B&B is booked for Slaughterday’ and got us a phone number. What happened: I called the other B&B and the owner was more worried about us sleeping in a cold booze bin/juke joint/… than being overbooked HA HA HA. What do you mean cozy and chaotic?? :lol: We might even have breakfast with the band this way. Fanboy! From the moment I touched the leftover 2019 consumption coins I had a hard time with them… the six coins rolling over the ground every time I touched my pocket >< but I managed…

This time the testing for access wasn’t such a fuss and I made sure we’d be covered for the full 24 hours of attending: test after 3 PM and as the Saturday event would start at 2 PM… no need to count hours haha. Suddenly we had all the time in the world and drove through pouring rain to the Lageweg in Hoogenweg ;) Dutch word joke of course. We were welcomed by Hennie and Ap and they’re a funny couple. Lovely couple, doing 5 different jobs, of which one was taking care of calves and sheep, we really WERE welcome there! Hennie advised us to take the car to see where Gebouw Hoogenweg was, it turned out it was only a 1,200 m walk! No need for taxi, bike or whatever ;) We also got some food, as the B&B was well equipped (fridge with Czech beer, microwave, heating plate, coffee machine and loads other useable stuff. That the Staropraman beer was tenable to July 2021 didn’t mind, as it’s in the bill already. For such old beer it tasted good enough, brush teeth and off to the first band. Before entering we already met Marcel IV and Mascha, telling us about the close shave Marcel had… been a diabetic all his life and never knew until his heart nearly stopped! Good to see you recover my tall friend! Thanks for the compliment on my Fleshcrawl shirt, I know Sven was as much as my friend as his. My old consumption coins were greeted by ‘yes and no to use’ ;) and I quickly handed them over, I was sure not to have to debate them over and over ^^ Wanda was called by organizer Gertie, apparently I had used her FB for two festival shirts. Nice surprise!

The first band today was Caffas Rain, with a logo resembling death core? Uhm, no, make it more groovey, not so impossibly fast and a grunt so deep I thought more of Coffins and Benediction than, say, Heaven Shall Burn and Co. We liked it, when we met the band later on we got a deal: if you want to buy the recent EP, you get the older CD for free. OK, haul a bunch of stickers for the bins at home, presto! With a quick glance outside the sky cleared up and it was even possible to stand outside for some smalltalk and intense talk, as we were asked how to make denims, talk about partner swap (…) and have a beer when the smokers asphalt themselves… Second band would be black metal band Evil Oath (nice to know a direction of a band with the logo alone; we would see mostly unknown bands today). I was ‘stalked’ by a girl I faintly remembered, as she went over the top about my The Shavers-backpatch… uhm, isn’t that Rydall Darkmoon of former Wogmeer haunted house Hard to Kill? Oh, now I remember the girl, it’s Rydall (Daniel)’s sister Rebekka! The Immortal influence on the band is still big, but add Watain and Mayhem too from now on. Pity Rydall’s vocals aren’t mixed properly the first half of the set, he can shout so lovely dirty… But shouting ‘Hard to Kill, Hard to Kill, Hard to Kill’ gave me the recognizing look. And smile. Rebekka made me buy a shirt ‘for the Dutch Denim’ but I think I have to cover a lot of bands room on it; I might get myself another festival shirt to cut out the logos. Remember the Lemmy-like bass sound this band has! Best song: Kingdom of Fire. I grabbed the set list (not knowing if the titles are correct, Rydall later mentioned they’re working on new songs and played at least one newie ;) ). Some songs come off their 2014 debut Anno.1666
- Vortex
- March to the Gates of Hell
- Scriptum
- Path
- Kingdom of Fire
- Sect
- Collaboration to Cleanse the Spirit and Mind from Faith

What I just realized when I typed this, I apparently wore my Dutch Denim on Cock’s death day! It has a lively picture of the entire band The Shavers. So, please see this review as a tribute to Cock de Jong and a ‘get well’-shout to Johannes de Boom, whose anti-rheumatism operations don’t seem to work fully. There even is a fund raiser to be able to nurse Johannes at home, insurance won’t cover it…

Of the third band we only saw a minute or two, I have no idea who played but the HJs were so abundant today and it was sooo loud we thanked Gertie for the umpteenth time, said goodbye to Leon, Geert and Rienk, Alwin R and the rest and took the 1,300 steps back to Hardenbergerveld. Waggle a little, of course :)

The breakfast is AMAZING there and now, having so much time on our hands, so close to the German border, we decided to be tourist for Nordhorn and let the Pfeffie and Edelkirsch roll again :p Germany and East-Holland are beautiful this time of year and as the weather was excellent, we walked easily to Gebouw Hoogenweg again. Again being thanked for a shirt (‘I have lived with Rachel of Occult for a while :)’ was a cool remark from Marcel again ^^ I bought the 2021 Harnbarg beer and beer mats and the third festival shirt, yeah, to cut it up. It didn’t take long before Anger Machine got to the stage, excusing themselves for playing without original singer Remus but it still sounded pretty good to us. The second band today was a bit more confusing to label, as I wrote ‘doomdeathcoregrind’ as reaction to Icons of Brutality. They have a lovely bass sound and ‘real’ twin guitars: one deep and clearly through a HM2 Boss pedal (hello Entrails ;) ) and the other one is way more shrill (hello Nuclear Assault ;) ). Meeting Hans Bijland again was also cool. At first I hadn’t even seen the Dauthuz logo on the flyer, but that was easily repaired: the band sounded like a steam roller with a Lamborghini engine: over the top fast, road work heavy and flattening dangerous. Hans was clearly in his best mood when he put my words on FB literally 8-) The band deserved it. Wanda probably deserved the set list:
- Face the Fury
- Destined for Death
- Intense Rage
- The Dead
- The Apocalypse
- The Hunt
- The Evil Wicked Do
- A New Dawn
- Cold
- [‘Crossfire’ under painter’s tape LOL]
- Tormentor (would it be a Tormentor or Kreator cover? Nope, all Dauthuz \m/ )

Fourth band today was Mouflon. We’d seen them with Graceless in Amstelveen and had liked that show so much we play the album Devastations to smithereens. It was business as usual for the band but we noticed the amount of Bolt Thrower influence is bigger than before, albeit doomier. RJ still uses the entire stage, jumps on speakers, to halfway the drum kit, his expressions still amass all human behavior limits. The set list said:
- Pure Filth
- Violent Mind
- Nr. 8 (of a record? I don’t recall)
- On the Frontlines
- Ping of Death (huh? A song about my microwave? :) )
- Tijl
- Remembered by Skin
- Bolt (uhm, I must have gotten a few beers at that time)
- Rich
- Nieuwe (‘new one’)

I had brought my Burial Remains As Blood Rains… tape and Spawn of Chaos CD again to try the second time to get them signed. The band did not need my introduction to grind the venue between rolling bass, screeching HM2 Boss guitars and battery drums to a nasty pulp. The vocals sound as if Sven himself watches over his friends and also as if Bastian himself is behind the drums. What a great sound they have, such cool songs and loads of interaction between members and fans. We highly enjoyed this set:
- Crucifixion of the Vanquished
- Spawn of Chaos
- Nameless Disease
- March of the Undead
- [‘Days of Dread’ crossed out]
- Sample – Slaves to the Cult
- Sample – Trinity of Deception
- Where Pieter Begins (band joke)
- Spear of Destiny
- Burn With Me

After the show I got my chance. I asked bass player Henk his bass plectrum, but on stage he couldn’t produce one. He also didn’t want to sign the tape, as he’s not on it. OK, fine, but he gave me an old God Dethroned guitar pick! Of course I know he’d been in God Dethroned during the Passiondale recordings and that pick is of that era! One of my all-time favorite death metal albums!! ]]<<he also played on The Liar of the White Worm, The Toxic Touch and Under the Sign of the Iron Cross>>[[ The rest of Burial Remains was happy to sign their own Sven tribute and CD. We had bought some more CDs (Judas Priest – Sad Wings.., Living Death – Protected…, an Agathocles – Grindbashers split for Wanda, all Dauthuz except the EP, an oldie from Slaughterday) and Alwin R stuffed two Paganize shirts in our hands (?something about fooling around with Wanda? What?!?) and a few Master-patches… for free. Haha fool Alwin, this way you’ll never make a living out of your CD store, especially not when your two trusted helpers can hardly count and don’t know what a CD/book costs… but that’s not our problem. My only problem this weekend was the black metal band Misanthropia, which shooed us away within the minute. What a ghastly screechy and violently loud set… ughhh. We were glad Slaughterday was next (and last). Organizer Gertie kept thanking us for coming and we kept thanking him not only for the bands, but certainly for helping us in need AND have a great time doing so! Slaughterday made sure their name is set in bloodshed. The band has an over the top loud set as if the walls are covered in bloody tiles, but sharp as a butcher’s knife well before the first raw cut. They started off with Ancient Death Triumph and all hell breaks loose in front of the stage. Moshers, headbangers, an occasional floor kisser and more all have a great time. The beards sweep, the hairs on arms stand up… great! Even though we haven’t seen the entire set, we had a great time. Wanda was getting more tired than me and her lower back makes her stand uncomfortable so we went out halfway the set. Out to the juke joint, off to a nice warm bed. Hennie and Ap had heated their son’s beer hall and that gave a nice touch to the end of a great festival weekend. I just had to put a little addition to the huge beer mug with all the bottle caps ;) . Grolsch as ending? Uhm, I’ve had better ;) As before, the breakfast was great and to our delight, the goodbye was warm as well. We might have given Hennie the hint to expand their B&B but I don’t think the sons would totally give up their juke joint ;) We drove some more before heading home, an entire car full of stuff, purchases and gifts, German beers and liquor, bread for the lunch on the road, water to keep driving… what a service! As Gertie would like to offer the bands in 2022 (Oct. 21st and 22nd noted!) both De Vlinder as Hardenbergerveld to the bands, we might hook up the cancelled B&B City Guest as alternative. What’s no alternative is NOT to head back to Hoogenweg next year! I might even give away our Heideroosjes tickets the same weekend…

Gertie bedankt!!! Family Davenschot bedankt!! Metal!!
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---edit: my brother Alex already cheered when I spoke about Heideroosjes. Problem solved ;) ---

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 4:04 am 
 

Metal Experience Fest III, feat. Cyclone, Graceless, Sept. 25th-26th, GebrDeNobel, Leiden

Metal Experience Fest, MEF for intimi, is a party setting we like a lot. We’d been to the first edition with Big Jeroen Z and the second one held Asphyx, so we’re all over a new edition when Remco told us last year they’re asked to play MEF once more. We also like the city of Leiden a lot, and hoped we’d be able to book in Hotel Rembrandt again; right in the middle of Lazaru’s, Leiden City Central Station and GebrDeNobel. Due to that blasted virus we thought we couldn’t enter, but with QR’s all around and a testing facility only 500 m from the hotel it’d be OK. Due to restrictions Sanctuary and Insanity Alert could not come, but they were replaced by Pestilence and Cyclone. What? Friggin’Cyclone? Belgium’s oldest and hardest?? Would they really… YEAH!! Sanctuary is booked for the fourth edition, but that’s the same weekend as Schoonebeek Deathfest ><

After the first test we drove to Leiden in a watery sunset, rain, shine, rainbows all present but coming to Rembrandt the door was locked?! Due to Friday afternoon traffic we were only 15 minutes later than ‘preferred entry time’. A walk to LOT hotel helped, we got the mobile number and were directed into our room by phone. Pfew. Hungry we scavenged for food, but the Japanese restaurant had more of McD than food art >< and we felt shooed out as we didn’t order fast enough… off to Lazaru’s; the first band was already playing when we entered. Seeing Byron, Vieze Pim and Big Jeroen made up for so-so food ;) The band was called Remain Untamed and according to their shirts they like/sound like Danzig, D.R.I., Slayer and Exodus. Not bad!! We weren’t too lucky with the second band as Rebel Star has a Guns’n’Roses feel without the blistering attitude (and sharpness of their debut ^^) One of the organizers of MEF wasn’t happy what I said about the fourth edition and this band, but not everyone can enjoy Mötley Crüe. Eus’remark on Schoonebeek wasn’t really an act of good fellowship to organizers >< but I don’t need such discussion now. If he doesn’t want to share a beer with me because of my opinion on Crüe I’m totally fine with that. It didn’t help his girlfriend was in her monthly :) . Oh well, Vince and Sixx are easily forgotten when Black Rabbit entered stage. I had no idea what to expect but we ended up with literally everything they had on them: CD, EP, compilation with one BR song on it, shirt, LS, beanie, stickers and signatures! This band had the perfect cross of old Sodom, Mutilator (Brasil, R.I.P.) and a bass line that resembles my favorite Slayer songs: Necrophiliac and Post Mortem!! I asked if they had a set list, guitarist Hidde told me he’d get one from the dressing room :cool: It was a hand written one and I have it signed by the entire band:
- La Bestia
- Internal Death
- Parasite
- Fake Blood
- Delta Wars
- Paradoxical Sleep
- Black Rabbit
- Taken by the Devil
- A Path Profound
Nice guys, dirty music, an attitude we like a lot, sharp and down to earth!! I have the feeling we’re going to see more of these guys from Apeldoorn! Wanda and me had been sharing Grolsch Weizener swing tops, so we sure didn’t walk the 100 m back to the hotel in a straight line ^^ It was a good day.

Morning arose, excellent breakfast and off to the second test site. We knew where to find more (Leiden-, Bowie-, cats- and Harry Potter-) patches… we got to the hotel with € 180 worth of needlework, found decent socks, night shirts and AC/DC beanies in Zeeman!! Of all places, Zeeman is well known for low-budget clothing, but with original AC/DC labels we are absolutely sure it’s genuine! We also bought the entire stack of beanies, as our necks need the warmth these days and the old ones are getting sniffy ;) In Plato we bought Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the latest Motörhead compilation Everything Louder Forever and some 20 fridge magnets of classic Pink Floyd-, Beatles-, Doors-, Blondie- album covers Wanda loves. We need a lot of grocery leaflets to keep up hihihi. In Hudson’s restaurant we were faced by one of the least professional teams of waiters we’ve ever met and off to GebrDeNobel it is, filled with fries instead of steak ><

We weren’t really looking forward to the start of the festival as Rob of Hallowed Fire’s screams made us turn around without a glimpse. We were waiting for Graceless!! They had Killed by Death as warm up music :cool: and went in like a shaped picture disc into a CD player haha. Incredibly loud but also well oiled, with big grins on all faces present, some pit during the last songs… I didn’t even write all titles as my head didn’t stop shaking during the entire show…
- We Will Be Gods
- one unwritten title ;)
- Retaliation of the Wicked
- Lugdunum Batavorum
- Shadowlands
- Legions of the Fallen (that’s the unwritten one, I later was told by Jeroen ;) )
- Die on Demand
- Revenge Uuuuuuussssss \m/
- Warpath
Remco thanked his rabid hometown and his fans from all over Holland (Erik Hendriks was present too, nice Eindhoven trip made ;) ; I heard some Friesian accent as well) and they were cheered all along. I heard someone ‘complaining’ about Ten Ton John, but as I’m no saint myself and I have nothing with Machine Head I wasn’t too uncomfortable for staying in the big hall. I had to ask Remco anyhow if my anniversary plans can still go on and he even was happily surprised about the shirts I intend to make for it ;) I know Graceless is transferred from Annie Hammer Bookings to District 19 and thought I’d hear Roman about it too. No problems here! Wanda had been so energetic I wasn’t surprised she was on top row for Carnation, so I followed… with a luxury drinking problem: I wanted to share a beer with Erik and returned from the bar with three different sizes of beers from three different friends :) Carnation had already started and I’m not sure how many songs had been played before I got to top row, but I heard a blistering sharp set containing Necromancer, Where Death Lies, the LG-tribute Supposed to Rot and Fathomless Depths. Enough to buy another Carnation shirt, I was given some festival shirt in exchange for a Pestilence one, Björn handed me two free Graceless patches (THANKS!!). I would not have bought the Pestilence shirt, as the classic Consvming Impvlse cover is changed into a weak horror picture >< but as Tony insisted, now I have two MEF3 shirts ;)

Our MAIN goal this weekend was the first Dutch Cyclone show since friggin’1992! Some of today’s and yesterday’s band members didn’t even exist then :) AND IT WAS FUCKING COOLLLLLLL!!! The band is ready to decapitate us all, thrust out all air, sweat to death, mosh our guts out and sweep the bloody floor with our headbanger hairs lost! Wanda did a butt dive on stage for the set list:
- Prelude to the End
- Take Thy Breath
- In the Grip of Evil
- Paralyzed
- Neurotic (the venue is too small! Sweat, beer and blood dripping from the walls! Singer Guido is thankful for the ’belabberde tronies’ that had not forgotten his band. Belabberde tronies = abject faces :) )
- Fall Under His Command (fist banging contest :) , Guido wins hahaha)
- Throw the First Stone
- Fighting the Fatal
I was surprised they wanted to play the small hall, but in hindsight I think it was a just thing to do it this way. The crowd who got into the small hall, got every penny worth of showing up, sharing beers and merch, physical exercise is no longer needed when a band with such qualifications grinds a hall to rubble. I called it ‘Overkill times 10’ ;) One comment made me laugh even more: it was Erik that complained Cyclone had not brought any merchandising but he laughed hard when I sent him a picture of me holding a Cyclone guitar pick! ‘What do you mean “no merch?”’ HA HA HA HA. What a great show this was! Great picture of me and Guido to show off!

I was still recuperating when Pestilence filled the big hall, but to my surprise the audience did totally nothing to the tunes of Dehydrated and Process of Suffocation so I turned my back on them too. Wanda later told me she’d been thinking ‘Pestilence has a company image now, always trying to achieve perfection and still complaining it’s not there yet’. I can concur to that, as old days won’t return anymore and I even think I won’t return to any Pestilence show again. Mameli also still won’t see what old and new fans bring to his band/project/company or whatever you call it. OK, they brought me The Grin when I was some puppy of 17… that’s history. I have nothing with the latest 2, 3 albums and to replace an iconic album cover for a mere horror one is pure bleehhggh to me.

We sure did not need afpils in Lazaru’s anymore, especially seeing Pim in such a down state about a woman that will never be there for him, Tony emotional, Eus pissed off at something, but we were content, tired, wet and broke. We returned to Rembrandt with huge grins and after a quick wash we hit the pillows. Breakfast was good as usual and we got home around noon. We’re NOT going to the fourth edition of Metal Experience Fest, even though I wouldn’t have minded to see Sanctuary… literally the first thrash metal band I ever saw, but the Westfriesian Schoonebeek Crew wouldn’t agree. Experience the Fatal! Metal!!

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Sun Apr 03, 2022 9:59 am 
 

CD presentation of Thanatos - Violent Death Rituals, feat. Bodyfarm, Baroeg Rotterdam, March 26th

Another great gig postponed from 2020 into 2021. I can’t stand the use of the word lockdown anymore, so this is the LAST time haha. Only pre here: we knew the new CD by heart now, not an unfamiliar tune to be heard all night ;) . As previously announced, Bodyfarm got the special guest spot. I’d never done it before, but I got my money back from an e-mail from Baroeg itself… I thought the gig was banned totally so I chose the money, not the support :roll: Within two months the new date was announced, now I got our second batch of tickets, book the same hotel as in April, but now with taxi instead of free cycle rent. Turned out, the show had to be reset once more, March 26th 2022 it finally took place. The days before the trip we were contacted by Hans of B&B De Gaanderij, park on his premises, eat some 500 m away, we’d be brought to Baroeg if we’d wanted. Hellyeah, great service, highly appreciated! The B&B itself is located in an ancient church building, hence the division of the roof and windows in a cross country setting between arable land, doves, trains and highway, but all surprisingly quiet. We love it already! Next trip to Baroeg… we know what to do. Hans showed us the Barendrecht favorite chicken-and-fries-and-buns shop/café and we ate deliciously. Turned out Baroeg is literally only a mile away from De Pint, so 2,200 m from De Gaanderij… nice to know. Already spotted members of all three bands, great weather, we’d wait, being addressed by some Georgians/Rumanians when the venue would open; they didn’t have tickets yet. I kept thinking ‘uhm, weren’t these tickets returned?’ but no, no problem entering Baroeg. Merch hunt, nearly every single item purchased of the bands known to me. I also had brought most Thanatos CDs to sign, Stephan was happy to see his old work once more appreciated ;) I got Theo van Eekelen to sign the Thanatology CD, ‘as you’ve been a member of the band for a slim time’ “Oh yeah, ages ago” :)

Maarten D present, Brammerman, Agga, Erwin even brought Zitla (what about divorce? Uhhh right), Erik and Bettina in better marital shape ;) , Dikke Pim and Lange Pim might take over our UK DF tickets, all in good fun and plenty of HJ to celebrate ;) First band tonight was Shoot the Messiah. I somehow expected some metalcore, but knowing Paul and Stephan I also did NOT expect metalcore of these guys. They played in the vein of Sepultura, somewhere half between Arise and Roots, but not much to my liking. When it comes to Sepultura I prefer older material and especially if it’s brought lukewarm I’m gone. Dikke Pim and me agreed we shouldn’t nag to our third show after two years of near-silence, but we nagged :lol: Better bring in some tunes and feel of yourself, dudes!

What’s in a feel can also be said about Quint Meerbeek, seeing him next to a stage where Bodyfarm is building up was weird to say the least. He agreed, he told me he’d seen the new line up in the practice bin but this was his first Bodyfarm with him as spectator instead of artist. Ralph and me both smiled when I noticed ‘this way Bodyfarm went from four bald heads and a haircut to a full blown long haired group’ ^^ The band did not linger. They went in, loud as a Tiger Mk II tank reaching a field full of T-34s, sharp as an 88 mm shell, speeding along roaring Maybach engines and leaving none alive. At least my neck is in full swing mode, as are my arms and esophagus and I’m certainly not alone enjoying this!! Maarten got the set list, I got the bass- and guitar picks from Ralph and Bram…
- Dreadlord
- Manhunt (Ralph congratulating Thanatos with an excellent CD, mentioning ‘Thomas Wouters is here in spirit’ during Woods of Dismay)
- The Well of Decay
- Slaves of War
- Angelreaper
- Woods of Dismay
- Der Landkreuzer
- Charlatan Messiah (hey, they haven’t played this in a long time! \m/ )
- Dark Age (again, we have the feeling this song is especially played FOR US \m/)
- Stroming Revolution (hihi who wrote this? :) nice little intense pit present)
- Unbroken

FRIGGIN’AWESOME ONCE MORE!!! This way we don’t care if shows are ‘postponed 80 times’ © Ralph ;) this shows metal is unbroken by two years of few possibilities, metal still unites, still builds bridges between bands, venues and fans is still an excellent excuses for drinking and having fun! I had spotted former Bodyfarm bass player Mathieu and spoke to Remco and that sprung an idea to my head: have a Bodyfarm CD signed by all present members and ex-members, live or on CD for Wanda! That brought even more smiles to musicians’faces hihihi. Alex surprised me with a Bodyfarm hoodie! He told me he was so happy to see couples like us, so often, at the front, shouting lyrics, having a great time and handing over so much to others, he had to do it 8-) As Wanda bought the exact same one, I’ve decided to add all bands I’ve seen wíth Bodyfarm to that hoodie I’m so happy with ;) (Ooh, those are quite abundant hahaha work to be done ^^).

The term CD presentation is a bit odd after two years, but to be honest it wasn’t even close to a mere presentation of the new material. It was special to see Thanatos in their hometown, with all their friends present, excellent sound, nice long set planned, great special guest, that had to be a killer show. Raw, fierce, loud, but also showing great musicianship through old and ‘new’ songs… great. But, as Rotterdam is Rotterdam, the crowd did not create a fine wall of death on Stephan’s command ^^ Also, in Baroeg, with the concrete poles in front of the stage, I’d be mad to be in such a wall of death thère hahaha. I must say I didn’t watch the entire set, as there were simply too much people to cuddle, to convince they needed beer or merch, trade UK Deathfest tickets and more… what a great adventure once more. Wanda got Paul Baayens’ new Thanatos guitar pick ;) Of Hans I’d gotten the tip to mention the street name and house number of the néíghbors, as a taxi will charge less for a Rotterdam ride than a ride into Barendrecht >< The bed was eager to be tested, even though I had probably forgotten my AC/DC cap in Baroeg (…) and the breakfast was abundant. I even wrote my thanks, drunk as I could be, to make sure people will know metalheads stayed in De Gaanderij and we, sure as hell, will return there. As for now, what I spent in beer Wanda spent in merch so the haul is great again. First band to attach to Alex’hoodie: Hail of Bullets, commemorating my first experience of what would become a good friend of mine: Thomas Wouters. Gone but surely not forgotten.

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herrieman72
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Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
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Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 4:02 am 
 

Schirenc Plays Pungent Stench, Carnation, April 8th Metropool Enschede

How good is it, to have bands become friends and more than willing to play together? It wasn’t the first time Carnation met up with Martin Schirenc’s incarnation of the filthiest band of Austria, but to us it was only natural to want to be with this party. Of course the date had been moved, but that wasn’t a problem to neither us nor the hotel. We’d travel in parts, as I had to do calamity service first, made a few calls as I drove, met up with my colleague Vincent (2 kids or 5? Uhhh after school care, OK I get it ;) ) and be in time to eat in Enschede. BurgerMe became BurgerNO as a chain of fast fooders focus on burgers so much but don’t even have gluten free stuff? Metropool… wasn’t that a venue in Hengelo? Or is it Atak renamed? The newly built Atak wasn’t that old to begin with, but it turned out Atak had gone bankrupt through Covid and the municipality Enschede HAD to have some cultural stuff being served… a partnership with Hengelo was formed, just like in voetbal, no idea what happened to Hengelo’s Metropool but indeed Atak is no more. It’s now a combination of theater, concert hall, practice bin, HJ bar (strange, in Grolsch City >< ) and the old wardrobe is now the mini stage.

We had more to time on our hands than we expected, as the ticket said ‘doors 7 PM’ at the door it said ‘7:30 doors’ so we took a little stroll through Enschede. It will never be Wanda’s favorite city, nor mine, as the bicycles rule the streets and the atmosphere is tense, in some way. As if FC Twente hooligans rule the bars and squares, as Feyenoord- and FC Groningen-fan I’m not at my place too… Coming inside Metropool/Atak held a surprise: Martin Schirenc was already present, setting up merch. Wanda bought the lot ^^ I think she spent over €100 on mostly Pungent Stench stuff… cap, her shirt, 6 patches, one shirt for me, stickers… let me handle the Carnation gifts then ;) and the bar personnel is great too: Wanda spotted beers she didn’t like (Radler) but the bartender immediately picked up 6 bottles of Franscikaner Weissbier. ‘Is 6 enough?’ he asked, smiling “uhh I’d be off my feet with a second bottle already” :)

It didn’t take long before Mouflon got to the stage. The band had only 25 viewers, but the others surely missed something! The band moves in a nice polygon between Coffins, November’s Doom, Obituary and Bolt Thrower and the band is far from static on stage: singer RJ brings a lot of expression to stage, bass player Tijl is nicely stoic, drummer Peter looks like a kid in a toystore and the guitarists move like madmen. Add a great, heavy and loud sound to that and you have a great show. RJ was moved after the show when Wanda asked for the set list ;) ‘Is my band so special then?’ he asked. Ahhh sweet! The list says:
- Nieuwe (unarguably a new song, maybe not even final version? We’ll find out sooner or later ;) )
- 8
- Ping
- On the Frontlines
- Remembered by Skin
- Bold
- Tijl
I think it’s time Maryland Deathfest organizers get a glimpse from this band. Period!

We had already spotted Bert and Jonathan from Carnation before Mouflon even started. I shared a beer with Laurens, asking about left over Distillator stuff (only shirts, he said sadly, no patches to be found anywhere) and gave him a beer and Robin a Mouflon patch. Carnation… a pile of goose bumps higher than Everest when they started with my favorite Death Metal track of this decennium: Reincarnation! I later thanked Yarne and Jonathan with this line and they turned shy ^^ The rest of the gig:
- Reincarnation (me going insane already)
- Iron Discipline (Wanda also started headbanging crazily, it had been quite a time ago she did \m/ )
- Plaguebreeder (man, does Simon look dangerous or what? Such a killer front man!)
- Hellfire (with matching smoke and red light effects)
- Malformed Regrowth (we stood at Yarne’s side, such a lovely bass line this song has!)
- Fathomless Depths
- Necromancer
- Where Death Lies
- Supposed to Rot (dedicated to L-G and Sven)
- Sepulcher of Alteration
Fancouple gets it all: I get Bert’s guitar pick and Wanda the set list and I think aloud to Robin ‘shouldn’t I have given you a Carnation patch instead of a Mouflon one?’ but he buys himself a Sepulcher shirt. Nice drawing and lavender colored print hihihi. I surprised Ivor (the wheel chair one) with another Carnation shirt ‘mine is at the Laundromat’ he replied :) before Don Conchino, Danny Vacuum and Mike G. Mayhem spill all filth, guts, amputated limbs with shattering volume across our banging heads: they will play For God Your Soul, For Me Your Flesh integrally! KILLERRRRRKUCHEKOTSSWALLOW 8-)
- Extreme Deformity
- Hypnos
- For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh
- Just Let Me Rot
- Pungent Stench
- Bonesawer
- Embalmed in Sulphuric Acid
- Blood, Pus and Gastric Juice
- Suspended Animation
- A Small Lunch
- ...followed by Fuck Bizarre
- Dead Body Love
- Shrunken and Mummified Bitch
- Viva La Muerte

Dirty, fat (not just Danny Vacuum :roll: ), greasy, slippery already in the sound check… we got on first row and shouted as much as we could, raising beers to the band and their fans, even a pit with Ivor in the center of it, great mix of a great sound. Pity Schirenc’s technical problems every second song, total power blackouts stopping the flow of the gig immensely, but still… this band knows what they want and what their audience wants… GORE! LIMBS! BLOOD! And not to forget MORE of it ;) After the show Martin was eager to tell ‘all technical shit… it just belongs to The Stench’ ^^ and got our pictures taken. Smiling widely we said goodbye to The Stench, to Carnation and Cryptosis but my smile faded fast when one of Robins friends seemed to need to touch Wanda obscenely… FUCK OFF DUDE, get your own body to tease, not Wanda!! I nearly lost my temper, but I could signal the bar personnel what was going on and they threw him out, securing a second exit for us, moving faster than Wanda could walk to the safety of our hotel. She understood I pulled her towards the hotel. We had had a great night with great bands, but with a blackened end and a cheerier night activity beyond the shouts… This dude will NOT enter our space again, I promise you that!

Breakfast was abundant but we were too tired to be tourists in a city we’d leave behind in a whiff… Great gigs, bad ending in the venue, great night, good breakfast and off home. Voetbal, shave, Chinese, Metal Tavern, whatever will happen is equal to us. Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 4:00 am 
 

Wacken Metal Battle Fryslan, Iduna Drachten, April 17th

Wanda doesn’t have the biggest following on FB and she doesn’t follow the entire (metal) world, but some contacts can be useful: yeah, of band members and concert organizers. So, long story short, when Stoflik Omskot (‘Stiff’ or 'Corpse' in Frysk ;) ) announced they would enter the Wacken Metal Battle 2022 it was set: we go and support them. Peter (Lord Belial of MRU days) NEEDED a dose of metal, so we picked him up too. Good thing: it’s a Sunday Afternoon Matinée, early to rise, early to shine, early to afpils. I wanted to be surprised so I didn’t check a single band beforehand. Bring in cash for SO merch (‘meur-chandising’ :) – Dutch word joke on stench) and drive! For the needed cash we ended up in a supermarket, where Easter bunnies were baffled to see us ^^ Iduna is on an industrial area so free parking was what we got ;)

Entering Iduna we already were spotted by Gurbe, guitarist of Stoflik Omskot and it was funny to see how digital friends become real ones once more. We bought the Muukskes and they turned out to be the last of the last. At first I wanted to demolish one of the beanies (Muukske) to put the ‘patch part’ to put on my Holland Hoodie, but seeing it in the morning light made us change our minds… it would be completely cut in pieces this way… the band might make some real patches once I guess. FB picture followed swift ;) Eat first, Macca is only seven minutes away. Easter bunny present, kilos of chocolate eggs to steal, I just want coffee. Without chocolate ;) All bands would get a half hour to convince the jury and the order was set by chance. OK, Stoflik Omskot ‘headlines’ today ;) but not before Atmoran (or aTMORAN) as the shirts said?) Anyway, Wanda spotted the first fact: as a fashion the band members all walk on red shoes and black pants. Nice to see half the band in denim, according to the denim’s fillings they like heavy, speed and thrash metal most. I think I can describe their energetic music and performance as some cross between those genres. Jump on stage, bang your fists and heads, guitars sweeping; these guys have fun together. Pity the venue wasn’t warmed up yet, I wouldn’t mind seeing these guys on another stage in the future.

Like said, I had no idea what to expect of the bands today and by the second band I was surprised: isn’t that Joey F as frontman of Polter? Uhm, seeing the lump above his eye, yeah it’s him. His band makes a mixture of doom, crustcore, Korn, Rammstein and Ministry, spread in 5 songs. I hear a synthesizer but no instrumentalist doing, so, it must be a click track. During the last song I met his mom Erica and she still tries to be hotter than the rest… but turned 60 a while ago :o I have to answer her truthfully about her son’s band and say ‘It’s Joey alright, jumpy and trying to be different, he’s an entertainer but just not my combination of influences. And no, I don’t want to touch your butt again’ :roll: Funny to notice Peter has spent more time with her ex Luco than she did the last years. Trains, diesels and steam engines are more important than a wobbly ass ^^ She kept me talking so much I hardly saw Bad Speed Boys perform, but I managed their first AND their last song…. Doing a mixture of speedrock (of course Peter Pan Speedrock comes to mind) and hardcore (Agnostic Front must be pretty big in Truckfighters land) I enjoyed the set, albeit in flashes.

We chose to eat again, but had to be fast to catch Stoflik Omskot in its entirety. Peter even had to confess I’d been walking too fast for him, I knew Wanda would never be able to keep up. She used the time to score some CDs from Alwin (Doc’s Metal Cruise) so typing this I hear Electrocution, Death Strike, Cenotaph and my picks: At the Gallows, Codex Mortis and Revolting. According to Alwin I must have been under a rock for not knowing Revolting; he claimed it is Rogga Johansson’s best work out of 6.834 projects/CDs/bands. OK, I buy ;) Easily convinced, eh? ;)

Our. Main. Dish. Now: STOFLIK OMSKOT is Friesian, blunt, fast, tight and merciless to corpses, Jehovah’s Witnesses, pleasure feeders and priests alike:
- Oarlochs Paad (War Path)
- BBQ (have the neighbor over for dinner)
- Feike (the feeder, reminds me of the song on Incoming Death 8-) )
- Doar ta Doar (This song is about Jehovah’s Witnesses and what we’d like to do to them ^^ )
- Necromantyk (no need to translate)
- Undjip Grèf (Shallow Grave)

I didn’t need to ask for Gurbe’s guitar pick, got it before he struck last chord 8-) The rest of the guitar picks he sent weren’t played with ^^ Wanda got the set list (‘put it on your review in Dutch’ – nah I won’t, Frysk fits this band like a coroner glove). In style I hint to a cross old Sinister – Unleashed – hint of old Gorefest as well. We love this band! So does their fan club, I think I spotted some 30 SO shirts of all sizes but XXL… Couldn’t buy Peter a SO shirt as they ran out of the bigger sizes so swiftly. I have one XL shirt, about 20 bumper stickers, the guitar pick, two Muukskes and Wanda her set list… Not surprising, old school death metal will not win such competitions and we decide NOT to head to the Wacken Metal Battle Final in Estrada, Harderwijk next month… Polter won. But still, happy as a hare butcher we head out to the car, stick a SO sticker to my bumper and off. At Wognum we didn’t need to confront Peter’s wife, so rested I drove to Westwoud for a nice afpils. Make that afwhiskey, fill in ice cream to that Grouse and Ajakkes lost the cup final ^^ and our Easter weekend is over. Happily telling tales of metal, planning the next SO fan club meeting, putting SO pictures on FB, looking forward to more metal as always… Metal!

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herrieman72
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:06 pm
Posts: 275
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2022 10:26 am 
 

Netherlands Deathfest V, April 28th – May 1st 2022 - Effenaar Eindhoven - headliners Sacramentum, Dismember, Autopsy

What was planned May 2020 was already interesting: DISMEMBER to return to Holland once more (first batch included Galvanizer and Obliteration. Cool. Underground stuff). It was announced around the time both Scandinavia Deathfest and Maryland Deathfest would thrill Dismember to reunite… along with PartySan we’d see them 4 times in some 16 months… no such thing. Not only I had to skip the Stockholm show due to a head butt but with the friggin’beer virus Wanda couldn’t enter the US unvaxxed and … yeah 2 years later we’d finally see them. Now twice in four months, but we will thrill! Only end of March 2022 a pre-party was added featuring Burial Remains and Dead Congegration… Wanda sent me a picture I’d thought it would have come from Kreft’s FB, as DC is one of his all time favorite bands. Only little problem: we’d totally forgotten to change our Sandton reservation to the new YEAR so it was tricky enough to be able to sleep at our favorite hotel. But I needed my Book of Changes once more, I kept thinking ‘two days, three nights or…’ so.. Monday before heading out to Eindhoven I checked the booking… damned if I haven’t made my reservation to include May 1st!! Fucking agendas of fucking digital bulls!

A hasty day of work kept me busy until driving to Eindhoven in a nice sunny weather, coffee to stay awake and off to Sandton, doing my hobby three times in a row :roll: due to several, mutually planned big maintenance jobs throughout Eindhoven Centre. I had brought four denims for this weekend so I needed to walk three times from car to room ;) and off into the city. It had been King’s Day before, so the entire city was still overwhelmed by smelly plastic cups, not the best entry to a metalfestival you say? Hihi, don’t worry, the Chicken Explosion at De Hoek made us forget most plastic ^^ Coming to Effenaar, being totally cash-less, brought the first nasty surprise: yeah, digital lockers. I had to be quick, without glasses, without anything in my hands so to speak to be quick enough >< . Outside we’d already found Wannes (Pentacle, ex-Asphyx, ex-Soulburn) and had a great chat with him, continuing into the foyer. No need for a quick beer as it’s Bahvaria nowadays, but we found the cure to that: Weihenstephaner Weissbier is a perfect belly underground for bad beer like Bah. Burial Remains was already playing so we got to front row immediately. The band has a great sound, no need to explain when all members use HM2 Heavy Metal Buzzsaw effects (of course!) No thrills, just sawing big logs into match sticks and gluing them back again ^^ We entered the hall during Days of Dread and soon Spawn of Chaos was announced… but a very short one, three times, one stroke, sound dead, ‘mumbelwumbel’ on stage, one stroke, sound dead >< Bass player Henke missed out an entire song when a safety plug vanished from his cabinet but he played on. Not that missing Henke in the sound made a hell of a difference, as the guitars sounded so full it was no big deal. I got the set list from singer Wim (we’d met him at Headbangers Bash too)
- Crucifiction of the Vanquished
- Nameless Disease
- Days of Dread
- Spawn of Chaos (if played in the right order, it’s such a cool death metal anthem!)
- Slaves to the Cult (hey, is there Haubersson standing next to Philippus’ stack? Yeah!)
- Where Death Begins
- Trinity of Deception
- Spear of Destiny
- Burn with Me (indeed, with guest vocals from Ralf, good to see you again!)

Great! This band sounds like Revel in Flesh and Fleshcrawl came over for a Bolt Thrower reunion BBQ ;) \m/ Killer band, we HAD to buy some stuff. Brought in extra patches for Thirza, as she’d loved Burial Remains on Schoonebeek too ;) Next band is Septage from Denmark. The band has a logo as if they practice in Fangorn Forest, but it’s grind, death, doom, speed and energy all along. The three-piece band has three singers, with three different vocal soundings, which reminded me a lot of old Nile; but more aggressive, I’d say a cross between Repulsion, Terrorizer, Doom and said Nile. Wanda had forgotten her wallet so she made me buy a CD, which I got signed using the only Danish words I know: Tak for spiset, tre øl og to Kwie. It made bass player Malik smile widely. He made me explain about my work in Denmark, now 26 years ago. Denmark hasn’t changed much since, according to Malik :) :)

With Erwin and Zitla we shared some beer (Bah now, water for Wanda) when Hyperdontia got to the stage, which had a fence to ‘make the small hall smaller but look bigger’(a wooden sign on the floor, between stage and fence) said ^^ Hyperdontia plays a lot like Morbid Angel (Altars- era) combined with Hate Eternal (King-era) and, to our delight some Cancer (CFC) influence as well. The band has an overwhelming sound and stage performance, very long hairs make a lot of mileage, fully tattooed arms swarm the guitar necks and kilos of piercings fly along. Great band to watch, got a bass plectrum, but as I didn’t like the shirts they have and think the CD wouldn’t be played much (say, in the car) all I bought was some patches. We’re simply no Morbid Angel fans so we don’t need to recapture the music non-live.

Headliner tonight was said Dead Congregation. I’d seen them before (with Soulburn with, yeah, Remco in it) but didn’t remember much… I took an earlier train to get home that night and also this night we don’t see much of DC. I’m bored and very tired, so we chose to get back to the hotel, have a nightcap and off. Not before some booking trouble with an entire Swiss squash team is solved, I drink the expensive hotel Heiny and we’re done for tonight. Slept like birds on a train wire ;)
As if we didn’t know already, Sandton has a great breakfast and we enjoyed it fully. We decided to do a little city tour walking and ended up around the old Philips management district with Rhododendrons as high and wide like trucks and Monilophyta in many varieties. We even had time for a nap before heading back to De Hoek, have sateh and be prepared for metal, moshing, beers, friends and all kind of oddities combined. Oddities like Cadaveric Incubator, grind on a full stomach didn’t make us digest any better so it was a short stop at the main hall. In the small hall there would be only two bands tonight, as at least two bands had to cancel somehow. So, no Deitus and/or Carnal Decay. With at least three Marcels and better halves I spotted and totally enjoyed Onslaught; we’d seen Jane and her friends pass by to the center of the main hall for a great spot during the old but certainly no gray Brits. One of the band members had to cancel the gig to a dislocated shoulder, but I have no idea who replaced him, let’s say the band was tight enough not to mention anyone different on stage. They started with Let There Be Death and all ancient emotions (high school, discovering thrash metal on Vara’s Vuurwerk, hard times with only an Anthrax- and a Venom-shirt and an Onslaught fan at school with a broken pelvis :| pity I never saw Sander again). Sander would have loved this, the band played a cross of old and new material. Wanda, who I’d been spotting from a distance with the Marcels, banged her head like a grinder and got the set list:
- Let There Be Death
- Sound of Violence
- Strike Fast, Strike Hard
- Destroyer of Worlds
- A Perfect Day to Die
- Metal Forces (whoooooweeehheeeee I shouted, making all around me laugh :) )
- Fight with the Beast
- Power from Hell (great discussion about which album was better, Power From Hell, The Force or VI ^^ )
- Thermonuclear Devastation of the Planet Earth

Onslaught came, conquered, slaughtered and buried us all!! This band never gets old and their new material is as good as the early days, it’s still very fresh to my ears. I’m kinda proud of all the Onslaught shirts later to be sold hihihi. We kept walking between bands, merch, CD stands and the likes, found a Benediction fan in our hotel ‘I’m a friend of Dave, do you know Benediction?’ “haha, of course, I’d first seen them in 1992 and they’ve become better and better over the years” – that kind of discussion I like so much ;) But to be honest, all I saw was three riffs and a well meant ‘Thank You Eindhoven, or was it Tilburg?’ :) :) and saw Alwin Zuur picking up his bass equipment. Huh? Is he a Benediction member or ‘just’ replacing someone today? I don’t keep up anymore, too many changes surrounding this festival and I haven’t brought my Book of Changes ^^ Fun fact: the paper slips for the locker codes has the band names printed on them: Dead Congregation, Benediction + Sacramentum, Dismember + LIK and Autopsy + Immolation ^^ Collector mania :)

I’d been to the small hall and outside for a breath of fresh air and spotted some band checking sound, but without back drop I can’t tell who they were. Sounded OK though, the four riffs I think it was black metal but without corpse paint. I searched for and found Jane, Reem and Tim with Wanda in their midst for our main dish tonight: Demo Fucking Lition Fucking Hammer Fucking KILLS US. Having met the band before it was like winning a lottery… Joy, feast, thrill, goose bumps, hairs standing up all over my (and 2,000 others ^^) body, Skull Fracturing Nightmare was enough to make Effenaar EXPLODE!! From then on, I have no idea what they played, but it was friggin’amazing, sharp, violent, pit-worthy, freak out music. Hard as a hammer, loud like the Bell Witch herself being molested and sharp as a lava pit THRASH METAL TO THE MAX. I think I heard Infectious Hospital Waste but all I want to remember is how to pit and take Tim along in it ;) Buying the hoodie was fun too, as several people wanted me, the band members AND the hoodie in a picture, nice talking to Maurice once more, smiling wider than a whale outswimming the harpoon :) Wanda had a great time too, as James Reilly really wanted HER to have his guitar pick, no matter the seven hands wanting to grab it for themselves ;) 8-)

But it wasn’t all the good Hospital waste, as I found out one of my German friends has cancer, treatment underway and as he said, nothing to worry about. Uhm, that’s not how I know cancer… pity I had to search Christian Sodom, Marc and the other bloke three times after promising them a drink >< On the other hand, Wanda had a top evening with Alwin and Husky coming especially to see her awwww sweet ^^ Not so sweet was headliner Sacramentum, I have no idea where the fuzz for this band originates from, we found them plain boring. We weren’t the only ones complaining, as the venue emptied along the set… Off to the hotel then. It had been a (mostly) cool day and the bed and shower were needed.

My bosom friend Clemens still lives in Eindhoven with his 31-years-and-counting-friendship with Susanne and their son Jurgen, it was soo good to see you three! Apart from a couple of off the rocker hypered Poles we went into Effenaar smoothly. This day would hold some surprises, good and bad. Yesterday I could avoid Alex Mutator but I knew he ‘needed’ to talk to me about his own faults and aggression towards my loved ones. Uggghhhh. That discussion happed around dinner time. First: Dequisitor. It was a short visit, as the band sounded like minimalist Morbid Angel and some Godflesh tuning, it seemed the drummer had been told not to hit his toms once too many… Measure a cup of sugar by counting pellets, was my idea and we left swiftly. We weren’t eager to get into the small hall, not only because it was loaded and hot there, but to see grinders Brutal Sphincter on a full stomach.. no. Not now. Of Adorior I didn’t even make pictures. Nice for people to see something they surely haven’t seen before, but don’t make it so dull >< We ended up in the foyer with half of Thanatos and Inhume present 8-) and gave Paul thé hint to survive Bahvaria: start with a nice dose of Weihenstephan Weissbier ;)

The big hall soon got my first positive surprise named Undergang. We could have seen them before (Stockholm, maybe even Dortmund) but we seemed to have missed quite a lot: first song they hinted towards Incantation, later the Duracell battery went in and the speed went up full! Leon was the first to hear my comparison: ‘Do you know the sound of purring cats? That’s me now, death metal style 8-) !’ I know he has cats so his grin was wide ;) Now I understand the vast number of Undergang shirts the last few years ;) One of my most anticipated shows was next: we had missed them in Stockholm due to the late notification of the days play lists, but LIK was ready to engrave us all! The band had a full big hall to their attention and the sound was amazing. Like Grave in their old days, Unleashed on good days and like Carnage… soooo cool! I managed to get to front row and shouted every growl I could imagine to some very cool white guitars (Gibson Les Paul, Flying V and Explorer Bass 8-) ) with outrageous headbanging musicians 8-) and the set list:
- The Weird
- Decay
- Funeral Anthem
- Ghoul
- The Deranged
- Corrosive Survival
- Flesh Frenzy
- Celebration of the Twisted
- Necromancer
- Le Morte Homme
- Becoming
WE LOVE THIS BAND!! If I’d written this for, say, Aardschok I would have to mention ‘not much originality’, ‘done before’ or ‘Big Three of Swedish Death’ but what the fuck?! This band has energy, fun, thrill, expression and what else do you need in a metal band, playing their balls off, interacting with audience and crew and not too violent lighting? Killer band, killer show! My neck is a mess, my arms are bruised, my throat aches but I’ve seen a great set once more. Of Cephalic Carnage we’ve only seen the sound check, this is clearly too technical for Wanda and I get an emotional surprise: I’m invited, on the spot, to take part in spreading Pim Voormeulen’s ashes near Effenaar! ;-| With a Gold Spiced Captain Morgan on ice and cola, we celebrate his life. Part of his ashes will be brought to Trutnov, Czech Republic to be spread on Obscene Extreme grounds. So fitting! I nearly forgot to head back to the main hall for Dismember! OK, I think I missed one song but the rest, beginning with Reborn in Blasphemy and Skinfather, was friggin’awesome! The sound was dry but incredibly loud, the band freaked out and the audience turned to rabid cannibals in front of them. Wanda found a picture of a Dismember set list:
- Of Fire
- Reborn in Blasphemy
- Pieces
- Skin her Alive
- Bleed for Me
- Skinfather
- Casket Garden
- Soon to be Dead
- Override of the Overture
- Fleshless
- Collection by Blood
- On Frozen Grounds
- Dreaming in Red
Cool fact: for this show they used a Dutch legendary painting but death metal style (dùh) Vermeer’s Meisje met de Parel. Wanda bought it for me, the sweet. Emptied the locker well satisfied, wobbly off to the hotel and gone in seconds. Both of us.

But…
Wanda had to pay the price for three days of death metal, talk, walk, stand, drink, not eat properly and… she decided to let me go ALONE to see Sunday’s bands. Her day would be filled with Sudoku © puzzles, her phone, water, nuts and bananas. We had a great breakfast, but she couldn’t walk to the room anymore and with mercury in my veins I took my exercise and walked for about an hour, visiting some war graves nearby and showering afterwards. Hot shower. Needed. I had a hard time saying goodbye to my love but with a fresh shirt I went to Effenaar again. One hint: selfie with everybody that cared about Wanda ;) Ate at De Hoek, the people know me there now and how I like my chicken ^^ First one I ran into was selfproclaimed selfie queen Inken, who got a huge wine for helping us sell our MDF tickets ;) Let’s say I made a hell lot of selfies today :) (band members included Skeletal Remains, Pentacle, Hellehond, Asphyx, Burial Remains and more ^^)

Then the bands… I must say I missed more than half the bands, talking about Wanda, Pim V, the ashes and more… but I did see Obliteration. I thought I liked them, but this show was squirmy like a hangover. Not a hint of previous fun, excitement nor skill present. Happily I went outside, made selfies, had a great time before entering main hall for Skeletal Remains. This, my readers, was friggin’fantastic. These guys make extreme music look simple like baking bagles, by oh my how tight are these fellows? Deep, blunt AND fast ;) \m/ In the meantime I went to the small hall to watch Rebaelliun do their sound check, but I wasn’t into it like that show in Haarlem, some three/four years ago. Picture of an empty hall, off. Outside again, having a good time. Galvanizer I watched with Agga, he clearly enjoyed it more than I did. No Wormed for me now, nor Immolation but Autopsy… pit, bash, ram, bump, KILLL! Don’t ask for song titles, I noticed familiar tunes and went off like a fire cracker near a gas station. Mark the torn hem on my ‘Belgian’ denim, the finger prints on my arms and chest, hairs standing 366 degrees, sore throat, unhindered by sweat and the likes… nice to notice Bob Bagchus’ efforts for printing Autopsy shirts was so well received ;) The waiting line for a shirt, Chris Reifert present at the booth of course, made a funny chaos beyond normal Effenaar closing time. The manager (I don’t know it was Effenaar manager or Autopsy’s) had to set Chris free, smiling widely to Alex Coralles that he could sign as well ^^ When I was outside I remembered getting a midnight snack for Wanda, found nearly the entire band Galvanizer present in the shop and leaving to the hotel with fat, grease, smear and something looking like baked meat; we didn’t care what we ate anymore.

Early to rise, no goodbye breakfast at Sandton’s, as I had to be at the doctor’s post around 10:30 AM to have some irritating warts removed. During the ‘operation’ the doctor found out I can be funny about Infectious Hospital Waste, I wasn't Dismembered but the Autopsy wasn’t needed to get my warts removed. He certainly was interested, his brother used to be a live music lover like me. No idea if I ever saw his brother, I do more than just metal live of course, but this was fun. Of course, pity that Wanda couldn’t witness Autopsy, but I already told her this is part of her healing… rest is needed and found if ‘taking care of’ is done. Love Metal and Metal Love.

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